（金魚）

Goldfish (金魚) depicts the ornamental carp cultivated in Japan since the Edo period as subjects of domestic keeping and seasonal display. Goldfish were popular summer subjects in Japanese printmaking, associated with the glass bowls and ceramic basins in which they were kept and viewed from above or through curved glass. Kiyochika's treatment likely explores the optical qualities of water and transparency—the refraction of light through a water surface, the way goldfish scales catch and scatter light from below. The subject allowed application of his Western-influenced study of light to a traditional domestic subject. Fins spreading in water, reflections on a bowl's surface, and the vivid orange-red of the fish against dark water would provide the contrast between luminous color and shadow that characterizes his finest work.