Yesterday, new item “Colored carp” was uploaded on the Top page.
Colored carp (Nishikigoi) firstly appeared in the first half of 19th Century in Nijumurago (二十村郷, a part of present Ojiya City and Nagaoka City in Niigata Prefecture). They say “strangers” in color appeared by mutation among black common carp which were farmed for food. Since then, our seniors continued their efforts to research and improve the carp, which result in such marvelous ornamental fish we admire today.
Although there is no official statistics, Niigata Prefecture is still the center of breeding nishikigoi in Japan followed by Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Shizuoka and other prefectures.
They say there are 80 different varieties of Nishikigoi today, including the fixed variety and variations. If you can identify some of the varieties at the site, your interest in nishikigoi shall be further increased.
Following sites show you the principal varieties of nishikigoi and its gene tree.
International Nishikigoi Promotion Center (Kokusai-nishikigoi-fukyu-center):
http://www.japan-nishikigoi.org/genealogy.html
All Japan Nishikigoi Promotion Association (Zen-nihon-nishikigoi-shinko-kai):
http://jnpa.info/koi01110.htm (Japanese)
http://jnpa.info/zen/show203.html (Japanese)
Yamakoshi.org: http://www.yamakoshi.org/culture/culture04/culture04-2/ (Japanese)
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