Why do the Japanese think that sazan is a fish, the progenitor of all fish?

Japanese oral folk art asserts that sazan is a fish with special wisdom, therefore it is here that it is the father of all the large and small fish existing in the water kingdom.

One of the reasons that formed this opinion is the breadth of its natural spread. Conventionally it is divided into two directions, which includes the rivers of the Far East, the southeast Asian rivers, including the Amur rivers in the north, and the Yunnan in the south of China, as well as all the water resources of the Ponto-Caspian-Aral basin. Although man has settled this fish much wider. Therefore, today the European carp is a fish that abundantly inhabits not only fresh, but brackish waters of basins of almost all seas, from the North and Caspian, to the Mediterranean and Black. It is abundant in Issyk-Kul Lake. Lake Baikal, Kamchatka, Sakhalin, the Altai Territory became rich in carp, due to their resettlement in these regions in the middle of the XIX century. Sazan is an industrial type of fish in the Aral and Baikal basins.

Another reason, perhaps, is that a huge family of carp, inhabiting almost all lakes and reservoirs of the earth, was bred by breeders, and the basis for them was the carp fish. His photo, such a big-headed man, with two pairs of antennae, located in the corners of his mouth, small eyes and a long dorsal fin, demonstrates their great similarity.

The body of the carp is covered with dense golden scales. Each of them seems to be painted. It has a fringing along the edge of the dots, turning into a black strip and one large dark spot in the center. Sazan is a long-lived fish. Its growth lasts seven to eight years, and the life expectancy reaches twenty years. The length of the body can exceed more than one meter. Therefore, it is not uncommon for a catch when one fish reaches a weight of sixteen, or even thirty-five kilograms.

Japanese sages say about some people that they are "cunning, like carp", because the habits of this fish, indeed, are amazing. These are perfectly developed feelings of sense of smell and touch, whose organs are not only the antennae at the mouth, but also on the abdomen, on the anal fins and gills. Has the property to fold his lips into a straw carcase. Fish can draw larvae and worms buried in silt for half a meter. On the lateral lines of his body there are organs that make it possible to distinguish, at a distance of more than ten meters, the slightest fluctuations in the water formed by the motion of bloodworms blasting in the ooze at a depth of forty centimeters. Very keen is the vision of carp. In fresh transparent water, any object within a radius of ten meters is under his close attention.

Being a valuable commercial species, today sazan is a fish, the recipes of which are counted in the hundreds. Culinary, canned, smoked, salted and marinated dishes are prepared from it. The reason for this is the very tasty meat of this fish. Traditionally it is fried, cooked with an ear, cold meat, smoked hot or cold, marinated with onions and vinegar. Cannery produces products of two types: carp meat in oil or in tomato. Recently, canned food from blanched fish with the addition of oil appeared.