Our Prefecture

Yamato-Koriyama City is well-known for cultured goldfish in Japan. We can see many preservation ponds in the city where goldfish of every variety are cultured.

Goldfish are said to have originated in China 2000 years ago, when a colored carp was created as a result of mutation. They naturally selected the colored ones and began culturing them. Then, in the middle of the Muromachi period (from 1336 to 1573), goldfish were brought into Japan.

According to the history of the city, goldfish were brought to Koriyama in 1724 when Yoshisato Yanagisawa, a feudal lord, was transferred from Yamanashi Prefecture to Nara.

Then, samurai warriors, who found it difficult to make a living, began to culture goldfish as a side job toward the end of the Edo period. In the Meiji period, farmers also began to culture them, which has lasted to the present day and has become one of the major businesses in the city.

Now, there are about 60 farmers who culture them, selling around 60 million goldfish and 20 thousand colored carp every year.