Japanese products 9-Japanese goldfish

Goldfish are ornamental fish that are mutations of crucian carp and have been repeatedly bred for ornamental purposes.

Because they are easy to keep, goldfish are popular all over the world.

(Reference material: Wikipedia)

If you read the book "Goldfish and Japanese" (author: Katsumi Suzuki), you will understand the relationship between goldfish and Japanese.

It was introduced in detail on the Kodansha BOOK Club website, so I would like to introduce it.

External site　 Kodansha BOOK Club　

https://news.kodansha.co.jp/7903

When you see a goldfish in the hot summer, you will feel the coolness, so a picture of the goldfish is drawn on various goods to create a cool feeling.

Left: Folding fan = Sensu 　Right: Wind chime

Japan's three major goldfish producing areas

Yatomi City, Aichi Prefecture

Edogawa -ku, Tokyo

Yamatokoriyama City, Nara Prefecture

When you hear the word goldfish, many people associate it with the goldfish scooping that takes place at the summer festival.

It is a play to enjoy how many goldfish you can scoop up in the aquarium with the tool "Poi" for scooping goldfish. The "poi" that scoops goldfish is made of thin paper or monaka shell.

In the olden days, I enjoyed taking scooped goldfish home and putting them in fishbowl, aquarium, pond, etc. for viewing.

However, in recent years, it seems that many households release the goldfish to the place without taking it home because it is sad to see the goldfish dying and it is difficult to maintain the aquarium.

In other words, it seems that they are more interested in competing for how many goldfish they can get than in keeping and watching goldfish.

In Japan, there is an art aquarium exhibition that started in 2007.

In this event, goldfish are placed in large tanks of various shapes and sizes and enjoyed with lights and music.

Visitors can feel cool and elegant by looking at a wide variety of goldfish, and forget about their busy daily lives.

The event will be held at Ginza Mitsukoshi Department Store in 2022.

External site 　Art AQUARIUM Exhibition  https://artaquarium.jp/

We hope that through Japanese goldfish, understanding of Japan will deepen.