type as to have been natives. At any rate, there is no evidence of the existence of the brilliant, 

 cultivated fish prior to their importation from China. 



The history of the introduction is lost in obscurity, but it appears to be established that as 

 early as the year 1500 some goldfish, probably of the simplest variety, were brought from China 

 to a town near Osaka; and many other importations were doubtless made in early times from China 

 and Korea, where the cultivation of this fish must have begun at a very remote period. 



The cultivation of goldfish in Japan began several centuries ago, and had attained considerable 

 extent long before the founding of the United States as a nation. It seems that as early as the 

 first decade of the eighteenth century, a breeder of goldfish began business at Koriyama; and the 

 author has visited at that place a goldfish farm that was started about 1763 and has been in 

 continuous operation to the present time. This establishment was at first maintained only for 

 pleasure, but later became a commercial enterprise and has for many years been conducted at great 

 profit. 



The intioduced variety of goldfish like various other things that the Japanese obtained from 

 outside their country, was vastly improved upon as a result of independent methods of culture 

 applied at a very early date; and new varieties were soon developed that are still being cultivated. 



Centers of the industry 



Goldfish are bred for pleasure or profit all over the Japanese Empire, and it is only in the most 

 northern island, Hakkaido, where the cold is intense, that successful culture is impossible. 



The chief centers of the industry are the great capital city of Tokyo which, with its two 

 million people, offers a superior market for all kinds of goldfish in addition to having a temperate 



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