Gin Rin Japanese Koi Carp Cyprinus Carpio

Gin Rin Japanese Koi Carp Cyprinus CarpioGin Rin Japanese Koi Carp Cyprinus Carpio The common name Gin Rin (GEEN leen) is actually shortened from the Japanese name Kin Gin Rin (keen GEEN leen) and is translated as golden silver reflective scales. As the name suggests, Gin Rin koi have beautiful, sparkling scales that appear to be of either a gold or silver colour. These scales give the koi a lovely, glittery effect and look stunning at all times, but especially so on particularly sunny days.

Gin Rin Japanese Koi Carp Cyprinus Carpio

The common name Gin Rin (GEEN-leen) is actually shortened from the Japanese name Kin-Gin-Rin (keen-GEEN-leen) and is translated as ‘golden-silver reflective scales’. As the name suggests, Gin Rin koi have beautiful, sparkling scales that appear to be of either a gold or silver colour. These scales give the koi a lovely, glittery effect and look stunning at all times, but especially so on particularly sunny days.

Any koi variety can have Gin Rin scales and when a koi has this scale type, the variety name is preceded by the words Gin Rin. For example, you could have Gin Kin Kohaku, Gin Rin Benigoi, or Gin Rin Goshiki. You could even have Gin Rin Doitsu varieties!

The Gin Rin variety was created by a very respected breeder called Eizaburo Hoshino in the early 20th century. No one is certain how the Gin Rin koi were created. The story states that Hoshino came across a local fisherman who had caught a Magoi fish (a Japanese common carp, a black fish from which all modern koi descend) whose scales glittered and shimmered magnificently. Hoshino brought this fish and bred it with some of his own koi to eventually create the first proper Gin Rin koi. The scale type took a long time and a lot of work by various breeders throughout Japan to fully stabilise but by the 1950s, the Gin Rin type was established and even refined into four subgroups.

It is important to note when discussing Gin Rin koi that the scales of a Gin Rin will appear to be a golden colour when they cover hi (red) pigments and the scales appear silver when they cover shiro (white) or sumi (black) pigments. If you are familiar with koi, you could compare Gin Rin koi with Hikarimono and Hikarimoyo koi which are metallic fish with one colour, or multiple colours, respectively. The metallic of the Hikari koi is from the skin of the koi having a lustre or sheen to it. Meanwhile, the Gin Rin is a scale type and the glitter effect is only on the scales of the koi. So, the difference between Gin Rin and Hikari koi is that the Gin Rin affects the scales of the fish while the Hikari affects the skin of the koi.