Culture & History

Statue of Chiyomatsu Ishikawa

This bronze statue of Dr. Chiyomatsu Ishikawa stands on the edge of Hikone's old port.
Chiyomatsu Ishikawa (1861-1935) theorized that the small "ayu" sweetfish living in Lake Biwa had reached their current state because they were once normal-sized "ayu" sweetfish, and not a separate species, their current size the result of being placed in a landlocked environment. He demonstrated this by experimentally transporting some of these small sweetfish into Tokyo's Tamagawa River.
Because of this, Lake Biwa's small sweetfish can be found stocked in rivers across much of Japan.