About RINKO Online
What does RINKO mean? – RIN means scales. KO means brilliance. RINKO means the brilliance of scales which was named by Dr Kuroki.
RINKO was published in 1962 as the first Nishikigoi magazine in the world. Dr Takeo Kuroki organized Oita Airinkai (koi club) with 53 members. He wrote the most articles which were written on A5 size paper, printed in black and white and 28 pages long with his wife’s artwork on the front cover.
When Dr Kuroki met our founder Shuji Fujita, they consulted on publishing his first book “Nishikigoi”. This created hundreds and thousands of “koi-kichi” (koi lovers/people crazy about koi). Their work together resulted in the success of RINKO Issue 15, the first cover printed in color. Since then their journey of introducing Nishikigoi culture to the world has blossomed.
Read about our history further down on this page or click this button to see magazine issues we have made available to subscribers on RINKO Online.
Dr Kuroki judging at the Koi Show in Hawaii (1964)
RINKO Magazine Has Published Since 1962
The First English RINKO was Published in 1974
Oita Airinkai branched out and created Nishi Nihon Airinkai in 1965. RINKO was approved as the official club magazine during the time magazine printing sizes were changed to B5. In 1969, there was a big Nishikigoi boom in Japan and Airinkai became a national club known as Zen Nippon Airinkai, that is, ZNA in short.
Dr Kuroki asked us to publish an English version of RINKO to promote Nishikigoi culture. The first English RINKO was published in 1974. Later on magazine printing sizes became A4, the same style now as it has been since 1990. English RINKO was changed to an online magazine with PDF files in 2000. RINKO is also published in China every two months. We have been delivering information on Nishikigoi from Japan where Nishikigoi was born and developed.
Fortunately, in recent times the number of Nishikigoi hobbyists in various countries has been increasing. We hope this website will contribute to spread the hobby of Nishikigoi all over the world and become a good reference for everyone who loves koi.
We would like to thank all the people who have been involved with RINKO magazine for their support and assistance. Also, we would like to show respect to the late Dr Kuroki who spent his life trying to introduce Japanese Nishikigoi culture. We hope Nishikigoi will be loved and appreciated by many people all over the world.
Shuji Fujita
Founder of RINKO
Shuji Fujita has dedicated his life to introducing the Koi culture to the world. His first involvement with Nishikigoi was 1964, the same year as the Tokyo Olympics. He visited Dr Kuroki, who planned to publish a book on Nishikigoi, and he was amazed by the real Nishikigoi pond of Dr Kuroki.
Mr. Fujita had seen a Nishikigoi pond in a park somewhere, and the corner of the booklet of the Niigata Grand Hotel. So he knew what they were like. However, the Nishikigoi swimming in the pond at Dr Kuroki’s house attracted him more than any other Nishikigoi he had seen.
That day he realized the beauty of Nishikigoi. He was working for the printing company at the time that he insisted Dr Kuroki Nishikigoi’s book should be fully color-printed. He read Dr Kuroki’s writings carefully and noted the classifications of different Nishikigoi varieties. Those notes would later become the basis of information RINKO published. He and his staff started to research Nishikigoi and have been learning about Nishikigoi from so many people. He produced many books on Nishikigoi while publishing RINKO.
His work has helped spread Nishikigoi culture in and out of Japan for the past 50 years. When he does something, he always asks himself “Does this help the Nishikigoi industry? — We are the media of Nishikigoi, use your knowledge for everyone involved with Nishikigoi”. These thoughts have been shared with the staff as RINKO’s motto.
Many Books on Nishikigoi Also Published
