The following photograph-rich article is about the Dragon Gate Carp of the Dragon Gate Waterfall in China. This article also features unique traditional popular culture associated with the Dragon Gate Carp in China and Japan.  In addition, varieties of dragon fish and horned fish around the world are featured here. Some are freaks of nature and/or gaffs (rogue taxidermy artworks) have been featured at sideshows here in America for over a century. This manuscript was produced by Dr. Eriko N. Bond, noted art critic and book author in New York City, as told by Takeshi Yamada. Yamada who is one of the most active artists in New York City and has had over 400 fine art exhibitions internationally.

TAKESHI YAMADA

ON

DRAGON FISH & HORNED FISH

Part 1

Everything they've ever "known" has been proven to be wrong.

A thousand years ago everybody knew as a fact, that the earth was the center of the universe.

Five hundred years ago, everybody knew that the Earth was flat,

and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on it.

Imagine what you'll know tomorrow.

Agent K, from the movie Men in Black, 1997

Reality Check

70% of our planet is covered with water. What is so significant about the relationship between humans and the water realm is that only 5% of the sea was explored by humans (as of today 2008, according to one of the cable TV nature programs). The sea is still full of undiscovered mysteries and wonders despite the perception of the over-confident and truly insignificant creature called humans. Biologically speaking, humans are not even the major players on the ecosystem of this planet at all. The reality is that 95% of all the species of animals are insects, who are the true rulers and owners of this planet. 

Here is one of the truly dramatic examples of life on this planet. This will blow your mind. According to the scientific knowledge of only a few decades ago, EVERY SCIENTIST WAS ABSOLUTELY SURE that no advanced living creatures (not just microbes, bacteria and mites) with a stable large population can be found where there are no light or plants at the deep ocean floor. Sadly, EVERY SCIENTIST WAS COMPLETELY WRONG and fully misunderstood the life on this planet. In the 1970s, a deep sea submarine discovered an unknown large oasis-like eco-system with a new group of unimaginable animals at the bottom of the deep and totally dark ocean floor with only under-water volcano activities. They were all absolutely unknown species of crabs, shrimps, mussels, and worms – one of the most breathtaking spectacular animals was a nearly 8 foot long giant tube worm. How could this be possible? The scientific community and academic establishments were completely shocked on this unimaginable – literally miraculous and history-making discovery. With this new discovery, scientists were literally forced to rewrite the biology text books completely. (The hydrothermal vent tubeworms get organic compounds directly from bacteria that live in their trophosome.)

Note: This creature, “giant tube worm (Riftia pachyptila)”, was once considered absolutely impossible to exist on our planet Earth. Nevertheless, the photographs and detailed descriptions of this true miracle of nature can be found in numerous websites today (after its discovery in 1970’s and formally named in Latin in 1981).

Giant tube worm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Nur04505.jpg

Here is another famous example about the existence of the impossible mythic creature according to Takeshi Yamada. This creature was once considered just a legendary creature and never existing by the majority of degree-earned real scientists. Even today, this animal is still considered as a mare fragment of the imagination by a majority of people including real scientists. This creature is the Unicorn. In reality, A UNICORN IS A REAL LIVING AND BREATHING ANIMAL -- a real mammal which develops a horn as it grows, just like a goat or deer (it is not a horse with a plastic horn glued on its head). If you want to breed real alive unicorns, there is an actual patent approved and issued by the United States to make it happen in your back yard. The unicorn is not a fraud like the Man-made Ice Age of 1970’s or Man-made Global Warming of 2000’s, preached by the human-hating fanatic liberal leftwing cult. The existence of the unicorn is not even a joke. The legal patent entitled “Surgical Procedure” by Timothy G. Zell issued on February 7, 1984 is about how to create an animal called a biological natural unicorn. The abstract of the patent states following. “This invention relates to a method of growing the horn on the skull in a manner that enhances the overall development of the brain of the animal.” The complete information of this unique patent, U.S. Patent 4,429,685, can be viewed by the following website free of charge. The extremely rare full-scale taxidermy of a real unicorn is also on display at Palace of Wonders in Washington, DC.  

http://www.colitz.com/site/4429685/4429685.htm

Real unicorns of today. (Not a Hollywood special effect!)

http://www.sideshowworld.com/interview-OZ.html

This is also a planet of dragons, and it is natural that there are so many creatures that resemble the dragon’s shape and forms. (For more information about real dragons – winged lizards - that have been living on this planet for millions of years, read Takeshi Yamada’s article “Dragons”.) In this article entitled “Dragon Fish and Horned Fish”, a natural and man-made unique group of fish with horns or dragon-like appearances are featured in great detail.

Efforts were undertaken to feature the Chinese Dragon Gate Carp in extensive detail in this article. The extremely rare photographs and taxidermy drawings of Chinese Dragon Gate Carp, which were never shown before were featured in this article, exclusively under the permission of Takeshi Yamada and the Museum of World Wonders in Coney Island area of Brooklyn, New York.

Needless to say, such unique animals (freaks of nature such as hairy trout or Jenny Hanivers including mummified ‘mermaids’ and sea devils) have been treasured, collected, and proudly displayed in the cabinets of curiosities around the world for many centuries. In the United States, some of them have been exhibited at circus sideshows, on the midway as pop culture and family entertainment for over the century.

It should be noted here again that Coney Island area of Brooklyn, New York once was once the center of such spectacular entertainment and culture in the United States. It may be hard to believe for today’s young people but the entertainment industry of Coney Island was once bigger than Hollywood, Las Vegas, Disney World, Six Flags, and Times Square all combined!

Takeshi Yamada at live art demonstration at American Museum of Natural History

 in Manhattan, New York. (Photograph by Dr. Eriko N. Bond. June 24, 2007)

It should also be noted that the City of New York still has not lost such appetite and passion for mythic creatures -- During May 26, 2007 and January 6, 2008, The American Museum of Natural History proudly produced a grand scale traveling exhibition entitled “Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns and Mermaids”. Takeshi Yamada and his rogue taxidermy artworks were filmed at his museum and Coney Island beach by the film crew of AMNH and it was shown as part of the ground-breaking international traveling exhibition. For more information of this unique museum exhibition and Yamada’s articles on the show, see following websites.

http://sideshowworld.com/TY-MysticC-Pt1.html

http://sideshowworld.com/TY-MysticC-Pt2.html

http://sideshowworld.com/TY-MysticC-Pt3.html

http://sideshowworld.com/TY-MysticC-Pt4.html

http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/mythiccreatures/

Sea Goat

Before presenting the story of the Chinese Dragon Gate Carp, this author wishes to write a little bit about unique groups of fish -- mythic western horned fish, man-made horned fish, freaks of nature, a group of real horned fish and dragon fish -- so that readers would have a better perspective to truly understand and appreciate the biological/historical/cultural/religious significance of the Chinese Dragon Gate Carp treasured in the Asian countries for many centuries. 

In the Western world for many centuries, the most famous and popular species of the horned fish is Capricorn (Latin: Capriconus means Sea Goat). Capricorn is a mythic creature and an astrological sign, which originated from the constellation Capricornus, and is the tenth sign of the zodiac. The astrological symbol for Capricorn is said to represent the horns and tail of the goat-fish or sea-goat. In Japan, it is called Yagi-za , which literally means the constellation of the goat.

Capricornus, the Sea Goat.

From Firmamentum Sobiescianum sive Uranographia, Johannes Hevelius, Gdansk, 1690 AD.

Capricorn is associated with the Greek myth of the goat Amalthea, who provided the infant Zeus with milk, or ambrosia in some versions. Zeus placed her in the sky to honor her (Catasterismi). Capricorn is also associated with the god Saturn and the god Aristaeus.

The Babylonian zodiacal sign is called šaxű "ibex". The sun in this month entered the suxűru-fish constellation, called the star of Tashmetum, the wife of Nabu. The goat-fish is known from depictions on Babylonian monuments; one of them is shown below. It is also linked to the Greek God, Pan. Another relates the form to the Mesopotamian deity Enki (Ea).

Sea Goat or Capricorn

About 500 hundred years ago, everyone including the real scientists “knew” the horned goat-fish is a real living and breathing creature (just like mermaids) created by God. (For more information on this, read an article entitled “Human-faced Fish” by Takeshi Yamada.) For better or worse, people of present time do not share the same opinion on the goat-fish as the ‘scientists’ did. Nevertheless, the images of this mythic fish have been repeatedly used with such authority just as many centuries ago in the western world. The images of this monstrous sea creature can be commonly seen in horoscopes in newspapers, magazines, accessories, internet websites, etc. in Western nations including America even today.

The figurines or jewelry of Capricorn are collected by the people with the astrological sign of Capricorn as a good luck charm. (On the contrary to this, the figurines and jewelry of the Chinese Dragon Gate Carp has been collected with people of all the astrological signs in Asian nations. The details of this unique culture will be stated in the later portion of this article.)

Note: Unlike the ‘sea goat’ goat-fish as featured above, the actual goatfish is a real group of fish. Goatfishes have two barbels under their chins, which look like a goatie beard. They eat worms and crustaceans found in the loose sand. Goatfishes are tropical marine perciform fish of the family Mullidae. Goatfish are most associated with the reefs of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. 

Blue-lined goatfish

In the world of rogue taxidermy (aka creative taxidermy, freak taxidermy, circus sideshow taxidermy or gaffs), the Capricorn has been “created” by using processed body parts of a variety of animals by the skilled hands and inspirational minds of eccentric artists for many centuries. One of such remarkable artists is Serena Brewer, who is a full time professional rogue taxidermy artist in America. She is one of the three founding members of Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists (MART). For more information of MART or becoming the member, see following website. (Takeshi Yamada is also a member of MART.)

http://www.roguetaxidermy.com/

A gorgeous rogue taxidermy of winged Capricorn created by Serena Brewer.

Freak of Nature

The term “freak of nature” used in this segment of the article means a nature-made horned fish due to the birth defects, genetic abnormalities, and accident of nature. Needless to say, these freaks of nature do not have a stable population in any ecosystem in natural habitats. In other words, they are not the necessarily the result of a change in the gene pool or evolution. (Though evolution itself is thought to be ‘sparked’ by occasional freak anomalies.)

The following is one of such a remarkable example, which is documented in great details in the real academic scientific papers and studied by real scientists. It is a scientific paper entitled "the little fish with the horn", which was published in the 1931 in the journal American Museum Novitates. The paper is by EW Gudger and the content is about the trout with the horn at a trout hatchery in North Carolina in 1928.

Frank Rieger, who worked at the hatchery, kept various freaky fish, in small jars, and the horny trout was one of his prize specimens. At first, Gudger thought that the horn was some form of developmental anomaly. He wrote in his paper, "this looked like a perfectly good horn, of chitinous or fibroid material, growing out of the middle of the forehead of the little fish, just at the level of the front edge of the eyes. --- There was, indeed, down the front edge of the snout a fine sliver of some material, but I thought it a part of the horn and paid no attention to it. --- I knew that hard cutaneous horns, abnormal growths, are found on the heads of various animals including that of the highest, Homo sapiens, and I presumed that this was some such object."

The horny trout. EW Gudger published the paper in 1931.

http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/pages/blog.php?blogid=19

A number of baby trout had actually developed a horn so Rieger suspected that the problem was probably water quality related. Rieger believed that the trout with the horn had died from a fungal infection at the base of the horn.

Closer investigation by a botanist at the University of Michigan (An Arbor, Michigan), Professor de la Rue, revealed the following theory. The "horn" was actually a ‘sticktight’ - the fruit or "achene" of the Bur marigold (Bidens cernua), and had dropped into the water and got stuck in the top of the trout's head, giving it the appearance of an aquatic unicorn. The ‘sticktights’ usually stick to animal fur or clothing if you walk past the plants, and aid the dispersal of seeds. This unfortunate trout must have risen to the water surface just as the spear-like sticktight dropped off the Bur Marigold, impaling its head. (The paper also goes on to say how Gudger then got several of the sticktights and stuck them into the heads of baby trout to test his hypothesis.) For more information see: Gudger, EW (1931) - A young rainbow trout (Salmo iridis) with a "horn" (the achene of Bidens cernua) on its head. American Museum Novitates, Number 465, March 21, 1931.

http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/pages/blog.php?blogid=19