[MUSIC]
How was your weekend, Shawn?
>> Good, man.
Good, good, good. >> Hm-hm, Good New Years? Yeah.
>> Good New Years.
Yeah, absolutely.
How about you? >> I had a good, good time.
>> Yeah. >> You got some new tattoo work done?
>> I did, late last night.
It's pretty sweet.
I'd show you but, you know.
>> Yeah. >> Censorship on YouTube.
>> Censorship, yeah.
>> People don't want to see that.
>> It's below the.
It is, yeah, yeah, yeah.
>> Okay, nevermind then.
You know what?
I have a great topic.
>> Sure.
>> I want to discuss the word nishikigoi.
>> Hm. >> Cuz it seems like there's kind of
a separation in America where we use the word koi.
>> Koi, yeah.
>> And it seems globally, the word nishikigoi is a little more used.
>> Yeah, I would say so.
>> And even in America I see kind of a separation, and
I just kinda wanna get to the bottom of it.
And we'll explain to the viewers like they're, how it originated.
>> Yeah, okay.
Well that sounds like great, great talk, let's start off with
pulling up what's closest to not nishikigoi but goi.
>> Okay. >> So
that's what we get the word nishiki from.
[SOUND] All right.
So if we're gonna talk about the word nishikigoi, we gotta kind of go back in time.
So the koi I chose today, Karasu goi, is a koi from back in time.
You have to understand, all the original koi breeders.
Were actually rice farmers, that would use their,
their rice paddies to grow carp in the off-season.
And carp in Japan is called goi.
G-O-I, goi.
>> Goi. And they were raising them for food?
>> For food, absolutely.
Absolutely,.
And this small area in Japan, Nigatta, is home for the most famous water,
sake, rice, and of course, in the future, will be famous for koi.
Or, nishikigoi.
>> That's a nice combo.
>> It is, yeah, it's a good time.
Rice beer.
Saki.
>> So, why is this fi, why is this fish here in the future?
I mean, we've already created all these beautiful fish, right?
>> Yeah, absolutely.
So, they're, the demand for Karasu goi, which is a plain black koi,
has a lot of value for lots of people.
For.
In Chinese culture, and Japan draws a lot of Chinese culture with everything they do.
You want to have exactly one black koi in your pond, and that black koi is there to,
sort of absorb the evils and, bring you good luck, so to speak, right?
>> Okay.
So that's why we call Karasu goi, is it Karasu goi?
>> Kara, karasu is like a, you gotta be careful about that word.
>> Yeah, I want to be careful.
Get it right. >> Cuz there's a, there's a, there's a,
if you just change that word a little bit,
it ends up being a pretty harsh curse word that means to kill.
>> Oh, we don't want to do that.
>> Yeah. So, karasu is.
>> With an O on the end or an A?
>> A kind of a U.
Karasu.
>> Karasu.
Karasu.
Yeah.
>> Okay. Wait what's the kill word, karasa?kaa.
>> Karas.
>> Karas. Yeah it's, it's a bad word.
>> Let's not use that one.
>> Yeah.
>> So, so it's karasu.
>> Yeah.
>> Karasu goi?
>> Goi. >> Karasu goi.
All one word or two separate words?
Two words. So
goi is always that sort of like little hyphen and then goi.
>> Okay. >> So the goi reprement,
represents that it's a, a carp or a fish.
The first part, karasu means crow.
>> Okay. >> Or like a raven.
Like, that, like a black bird.
>> Okay. >> So black bird fish.
Got it. >> A blackbird carp.
>> So bring us back to nishikigoi >> So yeah, so nishikigoi So
we have these, we have these farmers who are farming goi, right?
And goi are like a black or a dark brown carp..
And this is the closest thing I could come up with that's carp, right?
>> Right. >> This is still a beautiful koi.
>> Really beautiful.
>> And, and, you know.
Husband and wife.
They're out there like, feeding the fish, taking care of everything.
And sure enough they, they look out there and
they see kind of this fish that's more like bronze-ish, more of an orange color.
>> Okay. >> And they're like wow,
this thing is, this thing's beautiful.
This thing has color.
This thing has life.
Well then it's not a, a carp, it's a colored carp.
So the word nishikigoi is literally nishiki,
is colored or, brocade of color or array of color or colorful.
>> Okay. >> And goi is.
>> Koi.
>> Koi. All right.
>> Carp. >> Carp, yeah.
>> So, they're walking through the rice paddies and, touches his wife, nishikigoi.
>> Right, right, right.
Oh, yeah.
Beautiful colored carp.
And.
>> And that's where it all began.
>> Yeah, so yeah, so they took that fish and
they put it into a gold fish bowl, so to speak, right?
Like a. >> Cuz it's probably just a little.
>> Yeah, a little guy at that time, absolutely.
And, and separated him.
And this is something special, this is unique.
And, they would then next year get a couple more,
and start breeding and then start trading with neighbors,
cuz all, all the other neighbors were also breeding these kind of carp.
And, believe it or not the Emperor of Japan is strolling through,
kinda checking out his like rice fields and taxing everybody, having a good time.
>> Yes. >> And he sees these beautiful koi,
Nishikigoi colored carp.
And he says, these are, these are something special, I need to have these.
So he takes them and he puts them in his, in his moat, right?
A big moat around his castle.
And all the other rich folk were like oh, you know what?
We gotta have colored carp too.
>> Nishikigoi >> Nishikigoi Yes, you got it.
And so, so these rice farmers figured out, man this hobby that I'm doing, creating.
Beautiful carp, this probably a lot more profitable than breeding, carp to eat.
>> Super cool story.
>> Yeah. >> I like, I like the origin here.
I think that that's neat because, you know,
you see the word in magazines and forums and groups.
>> Sure. >> And, as the young hobbyists are coming in.
It's cool to get that history.
>> Yeah absolutely.
>> The history, the historical you know.
>> Sure.
>> The word, the word koi is, I can use the word in koi in Japan,
and generally everyone knows what I'm talking about.
The direct translation for koi is love.
So when I'm in Japan and I'm talking to someone who knows nothing about koi, and
I explain to them, oh, I sell koi, they kind of give me a funny like, you sell love, huh?
And then I explain, oh no no, nishikigoi, oh like colored koi, of course,
of course >> Got it.
So you went from there.
I guess we should show a Kohaku next to this guy, right?
>> Absolutely, to show kind of the evolution.
>> Right.
>> Yeah, let's do it.
>> Let's put a Kohaku in here.
>> Yeah.