Pre-industrial emblem
39Heraldry, materia medica or first-fish law met the koi before film.
Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
Speed18
Intelligence45
Range12
Resilience94
Cultural impact64
Ecological role18
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Last reviewed Sources & creditsMedia creditsMethodology
Quick answers
Are koi just goldfish?
No. Goldfish descend from Prussian carp (Carassius). Koi are ornamental common carp (Cyprinus carpio) fixed in Niigata. The atlas seeAlso cannot point at goldfish because that id is not in the taxonomy.
When did nishikigoi become a breed?
Colour mutants were kept in Yamakoshi rice-terrace ponds in the early 1800s. The 1914 Tokyo Taisho exhibition took them national.
What is the All Japan Koi Show?
The ZNA-centred championship that still sets kohaku, sanke and showa as the Gosanke core classes.
Why do Israeli and US farms matter?
After the 1960s export boom, Israeli and US growers scaled food-and-ornamental carp. Butterfly fins are largely a non-Niigata aesthetic.
What did KHV change?
Koi herpesvirus outbreaks from the late 1990s killed whole collections. Quarantine and certified-free stock became the new entry ticket.
Are escaped koi a conservation problem?
Common carp are invasive in many rivers and lakes. A show pond is secure; a flood overflow is not a garden anymore.
Koi culture is local: the same silhouette is a licence in one country and a logo in another.
Status bars are editorial -- they track how loudly this type spoke in English-language media and law, not a best-species score.
Status through time
Industrial take
42Canneries, ivory, longlines or shikar scaled the take.
Cinema and logo
56A film, book or NGO mark often outran the field paper.
Statute and listing
57ESA, CITES, IWC or national parks made the type a legal object.
Live-cam and tourism
46Streams, jeeps and auctions are the present tense of attention.
Portrayals
Village tale19th c.
Yamakoshi farmers treated colour carp as a side crop and a gift.
Exhibition1914
Taisho Tokyo made nishikigoi a civic curiosity.
Hobby magazine1970s-
US and UK pond press sold a Japanese aesthetic as backyard kit.
Disaster news2004
Chuetsu coverage treated koi ponds as cultural casualties.
Auction livestream2010s
Champion sales became online theatre.
Garden designongoing
A koi pond signals a certain suburban cosmopolitanism.
Rituals
Autumn harvest
Niigata breeders still net mud ponds and sort under autumn light.
Show benching
Judges walk vats in a silence that is half sport, half tea ceremony.
Quarantine weeks
Importers treat isolation tanks as the real border.
Sayings
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