Hanako the 226 year old koi

Hanako means flower girl in Japanese. Hanako lived the majority of her life in the pure spring waters of a pond at the foot of Mt Ontake near Oppara. It’s believed that the purity and relative isolation of the pond contributed to her longevity.

Hanako lived through the English conquering of both Australia and New Zealand, along with both world wars and Japan’s intensive role in both of them. She also was swimming around when humans first landed on the moon and finally she swum off this mortal coil in 1977.

Other long lived koi in the same pond were Yuki, who lived to 141 and Aoi who reached 170. Hanako grew to be around 7.5 kilos and was a vivid orange hue. Her true age was confirmed by analysing her scales post-mortem.

Fascinating Story About Hanako – World’s Oldest Koi Fish

Hanako, a koi fish who died at the age of 226. In 1966, two of her scales were removed and extensively studied to determine her age. She was the longest living koi fish (c. 1751 – 7 July 1977.) from interestingasfuck

I saw some very beautiful, big and serene koi when I was in Japan last year. Here’s a video of them in Kyoto…