An explanation of fish rubbing (‘gyotaku’, in Japanese). A 1st step – the fish specimen is painted using ink B 2nd step – the specimen is covered with a sheet of paper C the finished image of the fish specimen on the paper. This is known as the direct method of ‘gyotaku’; there is also an indirect method whereby a sheet of paper is placed on the fish specimen, then the sheet is painted by hand using ink. See also Hiyama (1964a, b) and Shimizu (1972, 1975).