Kinko is the name of one of the Daoist immortals, Kinko Sennin, or Kinko the Immortal, also called Qin Gao in Chinese. Kinko was an artist who painted fish but would neither eat nor harm them. For reason of his virtue, the Dragon King sent forth a giant carp and invited Kinko to visit his palace in the sea world. The legend is that he went undersea and learned esoteric secrets and then emerged from the ocean riding on the back of a giant carp. He is always depicted sitting on a huge red carp, wearing a scholar's cap and holding a scroll. The carp symbolizes strength, fortitude and good fortune. It is a symbol of perseverance because of its capacity to swim upstream. Also, when it arrives at its destination it supposedly jumps over the dragon's gate and mutates into a dragon, and in this is a symbol either of success or of enlightenment.