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Weren't these "golden carp" goldfish instead of ancestral koi? Matsui says it is fairly certain that goldfish had arrived in Japan from China by 1500. Goldfish were being bred in China by AD 1000, possibly by 800.
A document dating to 1694 dealt with a ban on breeding goldfish by the Tokugawa Shogunate in order to curb this frivolous luxury.
Matsui also said that the oldest Japanese goldfish show or fair with a continuous history was started in Tokyo in 1885. He insinuates that this was not the first goldfish show and there may have been others as early as 1824.
-s tev
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