koi story priceless japanese fish make a splash
Last Updated : GMT 09:07:40
Egypt Today, egypt today
Egypt Today, egypt today
Last Updated : GMT 09:07:40
Egypt Today, egypt today

Hand-reared for their colour and beauty

Koi story: priceless Japanese fish make a splash

Egypt Today, egypt today

Egypt Today, egypt today Koi story: priceless Japanese fish make a splash

The fish have for decades been popular in Japan
Kazo - Egypt Today

Hand-reared for their colour and beauty, koi carp have become an iconic symbol of Japan that can sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars and even participate in fishy beauty contests.

The nation's koi carp were brought to the world's attention when visiting US President Donald Trump was snapped unceremoniously dumping the last of a box of feed into a palace pond in Tokyo.

But the fish have for decades been popular in Japan, where top breeders take their most prized specimens (known as "nishikigoi") to highly competitive "beauty parades."

At one such competition in Tokyo, judges in sharp suits, notebooks in hand, stride around tanks lined up along a pedestrian street where the valuable koi strut their stuff.

They come in all the colours of the rainbow: pearly white, bright red, cloudy-grey, dark blue, gleaming golden yellow.

But it is the curvature of the fish that accounts for 60 percent of the final score, explained competition organiser Isamu Hattori, who runs Japan's main association for breeders of koi carp.

Colour and contrast make up another 30 percent, he told AFP.

And the final 10 percent? "Hinkaku" -- a concept that is tricky to define and even harder to judge, best translated as the "presence" or "aura" of the fish.

- 'Everything matters' -

"'Hinkaku'. It's either there in the genes at birth, or it's not," mused Mikinori Kurikara, a koi breeder in Saitama, north of Tokyo, who says he can spot it in fish when they reach eight or nine months old.

"Put it this way, it's like looking after your own children every day. You care for your kids and want them to grow healthy. In the same way, you take care of these fish, appreciate them and adore them," he told AFP.

At his farm, thousands of tiny "nishikigoi" (coloured carp) dart around deep basins of carefully purified water, meticulously divided by age and colour.

A less glorious fate awaits the other koi who have not been fortunate enough to catch the eye of the breeder: they are sold off as feed for tropical fish.

"It's a really delicate job, really difficult. Everything matters: the ground, the water quality, the food," explained the 48-year-old, who took over the farm from his father and is training his son, half his age, in the subtle arts of koi breeding.

"We have many secrets," he adds mischievously. "But even if we let them slip, it wouldn't work. You have to be able to feel it."

- 'Social ladder' -

These days, any self-respecting traditional Japanese garden has plenty of colourful koi gracing its ponds, but it is a relatively recent tradition.

Around 200 years ago, villagers in the mountainous region around Niigata (in the north-west of Japan) started to practise genetic engineering without knowing what they were doing.

For the first time, they began to cross-breed rare colourful carp, not for food but for pure aesthetical value.

The craze for nishikigoi gradually took over the whole of Japan and then spread into other parts of Asia.

They are especially popular in China, where carp swimming against the tide symbolises the idea of perseverance leading to riches -- rather like people climbing the social ladder, said Yutaka Suga, professor at the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia at Tokyo University.

Today, koi is big business and Japanese exports are booming -- 90 percent of domestic production is exported and sold at auction.

In 2016, Japan exported a record 295 tonnes of koi carp, generating turnover of 3.5 billion yen ($31 million), an increase of almost 50 percent from 2007, according to Japan's agriculture ministry.

As for individual carp, "the prices have become insane," said carp association boss Hattori.

"Today, a two-year-old carp can sell for 30 million yen each ($265,000) whereas 10 years ago, two million yen was already a very good price," he told AFP.

Like racehorse owners, many foreign owners leave their prized possessions in their home Japanese farms so they can compete in the most prestigious fishy pageants, which are only open to domestic rearers.

One such owner, Chinese koi collector Yuan Jiandong, was in Tokyo to cheer on some of his own carp.

Source:AFP

egypttoday
egypttoday

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

koi story priceless japanese fish make a splash koi story priceless japanese fish make a splash



GMT 16:10 2018 Friday ,14 December

Bahrain press headlines For 14 Dec 2018

GMT 11:24 2017 Wednesday ,15 March

Philippine vice president slams nation's drug war

GMT 07:38 2017 Thursday ,16 March

Nearly 100,000 Iraqis flee battle

GMT 08:13 2017 Thursday ,06 July

Nikolaos Pappas left Cairo on Thursday wrapping up

GMT 07:43 2017 Wednesday ,22 March

Hezbollah commander killed by own men

GMT 19:57 2017 Monday ,05 June

Tunisian expert accuses

GMT 14:52 2015 Saturday ,16 May

Paco Rabanne introduces Olympéa

GMT 14:19 2017 Thursday ,28 September

TAURUS (April21st-May21st)

GMT 10:16 2012 Thursday ,21 June

Brazilian president talks of torture

GMT 10:49 2012 Thursday ,01 March

World\'s most expensive restaurants

GMT 20:17 2012 Saturday ,07 January

French parties battle over Joan of Arc\'s legacy

GMT 18:40 2016 Saturday ,24 September

Drought leaves 237,000 people thirsty in central China

GMT 15:36 2011 Tuesday ,07 June

Kuwaiti dinar stable at KD 0.273 against dollar

GMT 09:06 2011 Wednesday ,12 October

Iranian films lead nominees in APSA

GMT 16:50 2017 Thursday ,05 January

Netanyahu urges pardon for convicted Israeli soldier

GMT 05:00 2015 Thursday ,02 April

China's Chen, Lin dominate Malaysia Open

GMT 14:37 2017 Sunday ,09 April

How Snoop Dogg plans to make golf cool

GMT 21:35 2013 Wednesday ,04 December

First Russian smartphone, YotaPhone, launched in Moscow

GMT 14:10 2011 Saturday ,01 October

Away tests for African favourites

GMT 21:48 2011 Friday ,13 May

Counterfeit drugs costing lives

GMT 08:30 2012 Tuesday ,17 January

Moroccan Tagine Kefta
 
 Egypt Today Facebook,egypt today facebook  Egypt Today Twitter,egypt today twitter Egypt Today Rss,egypt today rss  Egypt Today Youtube,egypt today youtube  Egypt Today Youtube,egypt today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

egypttoday egypttoday egypttoday egypttoday
egypttoday egypttoday egypttoday
egypttoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
egypttoday, Egypttoday, Egypttoday