In the middle part of the 19th. Century the main population of Niigata prefecture comprised of farming people who produced rice, green vegetables and root vegetables on land carved out of mountainsides. These people were mainly from peasant stock, renting and farming the land which belonged to the wealthy landowners.
Indeed, it was not until the turn of the century that these people were allowed to own surnames by law. This privilege was only previously enjoyed by the Samurai classes. Even so, when surnames were allowed, the farming classes were only allowed to choose from a very small list of surnames permissible. This clearly explained why many modern day surnames in this area are the same, names such as Miya, Hiroi, Mano, and Sakai, are very common indeed and this is very confusing to the visitor wishing to purchase Nishikigoi.

The latter-day rise farmers of Niigata, endeavouring to make use of all available land, terraced the mountainsides into rise paddies and irrigated them by means of man-made mud reservoirs, sited above the paddies, which were part-drained periodically to feed the rise paddies below. These ponds filled again naturally with rain and snow water and were found to be ideal for growing Carp fry in the summer months. Early books state the fry were actually grown in the rise paddies themselves; this is an inaccuracy. Instead they were grown in the reservoirs which supplied water to the rice paddies. During the 1870’s many rice farmers began to diversify their labours by growing Carp in order to supplement their standard winter diet which usually consisted only of rice and root vegetables. It is recorded that the first area in Niigata to attempt to grow Carp for food was the village of Nijumurago during the Edo period in the first half of the 19th. Century.

It must be explained here that, even until quite recently, the winters in the mountainous areas of Niigata kept the farmers and their family’s virtual prisoners in their own wooden houses. There was no possibility of travelling, to the coast to purchase sea fish to add protein to their diet during winter as the depth of snow made this impossible. Even today, roofs of cars and houses have to be cleared sometimes on daily basis, to prevent them collapsing. Nowadays the area has narrow but good It must be explained here that, even until quite recently, the winters in the mountainous areas of Niigata kept the farmers and their family’s virtual prisoners in their own wooden houses. There was no possibility of travelling, to the coast to purchase sea fish to add protein to their diet during winter as the depth of snow made this impossible. Even today, roofs of cars and houses have to be cleared sometimes on daily basis, to prevent them collapsing. Nowadays the area has narrow but good roads, automatic sprinkler systems to keep the roads clear of snow, four wheel drive vehicles and mountainsides adjacent the roads shored with concrete of steel barriers to keep them free from serious avalanche problems to the traveller.

Going back to the early days, the carp fry were produced in early June and grown until mid October before harvesting at around 10cms. They were then dried and salted before being stored to be eaten during the winter months. Valuable parent stocks were not allowed to be left in outdoor ponds for the winter. Instead they were housed in small ponds built next to the house or, in many instances, inside the house by simply excavating a pond into the earth floor of the main room. By doing this it prevented losses from severe water temperatures and natural predators that are abound in the area. These house ponds contained very few carp, only the ones to be used for parents the following spring. In those days there were no luxuries such as electric water pumps or air pumps and all members of the family had to ensure that aeration was added to the water by regularly disturbing the pond surface by hand.

After some years of breeding carp in Niigata, the production quantities increased and stocks of salted carp were in abundance. This brought food fish merchants from the large cities of Japan up to Niigata to purchase these for re-sale in their own areas.

No-one seems to be sure exactly when the rice farmers-cum-carp-breeders started to find pigment irregularities in their food stocks but many locals in the area say it was between 1840 – 1844. Soon afterwards, producing ‘coloured carp’ became a working class hobby and a winter diversion to these people. To make a comparison, this was rather the same working class hobby as was pigeon fancying in its early years in Europe; today however, fortunes are paid for some pigeons.

We are assured that some farmers, who saw colour pigmentation occurring on some part of small carp, kept these as their own pets. Some produced small areas of white whilst others produced random red scales; these were bread with similar carp belonging to neighbouring farmers and the past time began to gather momentum.

Even during the early 1900’s it was only the carp farmers themselves who kept their coloured carp as a private pastime. In later years after a few ‘outsiders’ had seen and spoken about these rare fish, a few local businessmen, merchants, doctors and landowners started to keep these coloured carp as a hobby. We mention the word ‘local’ as, in those days, it was almost impossible to transport the carp alive for anything much more than five to ten miles as there were no methods of safe packing and transportation. In fact, the method we use today of transporting Koi by plastic bags containing pure oxygen and water was only first used in Japan as recently as 1960 shortly after the invention of the first plastic bag.

The Tokyo Taisho Exhibition held in 1914 first brought coloured carp to the attention of the Japanese public. The Exhibition was held to encourage the different prefectures to advertise and display items which were unique to each prefecture. The carp farmers of Niigata transported their ‘Hirogoi’ (‘coloured carp’, as they were then known) to Tokyo by rail in specially constructed wooden containers in order to display their unique hobby for the first time. The Japanese public were very impressed as no-one before had seen such beautiful carp. It is said that, after the Exhibition, some of the stock was placed in the moat surrounding the Emperors’ Palace in Tokyo.

During the Exhibition itself, an artist was commissioned to make a full record of the ‘Hirogoi’ on display by painstakingly drawing and painting each one by pattern as the only means of identification. This ‘one-off’ record mysteriously disappeared shortly afterwards and was considered lost forever, fortunately the record turned up in Tokyo during 1987 on sale in a second hand book store!

‘Hirogoi’ were bread for sale, albeit in a very small way, during 1916 for the local businessmen in the areas around Ojiya, Niigata as mentioned earlier. It is said that the carp breeders in the village of Takezawa produced the first ‘Hirogoi’ for sale but communications and publicity in these times were basic to say the least and very few were purchased at all.

Promotion was needed if these coloured carp were to reach a wider market and, strangely enough, this was carried out by the carp dealers, mentioned earlier, who visited Niigata to buy stocks of salted carp for the table. Some produced small coloured carp and managed to transport them back alive to their businesses to sell to those wishing to keep them as pets. As a result of this minority interest, a few dealers started to build their businesses to cope with the gradual increase in demand as more and more Japanese became aware of Hirogoi. Much of the credit for ‘spreading the word’ of early Nishikigoi must go to the following people:-

Obviously there are many other people in other areas responsible for similar work, but it is felt that recognition should be given to the aforementioned who worked so hard to spread the joy of Nishikigoi (a term not used until after the 2nd World War) to the rest of Japan and, indirectly to the rest of the world. Without the efforts of these and other ‘believers’ the farmers/breeders would almost certainly still be producing their Hirogoi as a private hobby shared only with their immediate contemporaries.

It is interesting to note that, in the time period between the names Hirogoi or Irogoi (coloured carp) to the present day title Nishikigoi (brocaded Carp), they were known by other names along the way, notably ‘Hanagoi’ (flowery Carp) and ‘Moyoogoi’ (fanciful patterned Carp).

Because the ‘hobby’ in the early days was only a minor pastime in a very inaccessible area, very few actual records have been maintained as to who first produced which variety and when. It was not until the late 1920’s that pattern books were kept by some breeders by using coloured inks on a Carp outline to be viewed from above, as Nishikigoi were bread to be viewed. Variations in colour and patterns were logged annually as the specimen matured; this was the only way to maintain records until, in later years, colour photography became available. Mr. Kawakami in Uragara still proudly retains his fathers pattern book of Taisho Sanke and Kohaku recorded in the 1930’s, however, it is sad to say that most of these records have been lost or destroyed long ago.