Koi pond in Okayama Koraku-en

The beautiful ornamental Japanese carp, known in Japan as nishiki-goi "brocaded carp", is the same species as the regular carps, the only difference being the careful breeding.

It is known that the first nishiki-goi breeders were farmers, residents of a village in Niigata, at the beginning of 1800. They noticed that some carps bred in the irrigation ponds were having spots of white, orange and red color. They separated them, and after many generations, they obtain the vivid colored koi we know today...