S P O T ／ SPOT-367

Echizen Gani (Crab) Museum

越前がにミュージアムえちぜんがにみゅーじあむ

On the rugged Echizen coast of Fukui Prefecture stands a building shaped like a colossal crab bracing toward the sea — a domed 'shell' with two claw-like wings flung wide. This is the Echizen Gani Museum, one of Japan's very few museums devoted entirely to a single crustacean: the Echizen crab, the male snow crab that is Fukui's iconic winter delicacy and is still presented to the Imperial Household. Opened on July 15, 2000, and nicknamed 'BigLove' (a public-vote blend of bikkura — the shock of seeing a giant crab — plus Crab plus Love), the museum commits to its one subject with total conviction, from architecture to exhibits. Inside, a three-story atrium diorama recreates the sea floor at a depth of 300 meters; a 10-meter-wide, 3-meter-high screen in the 'BigLove Theater' projects crab-fishing footage; and a fishing-boat simulator — complete with reproduced sea spray — lets visitors pilot a crab boat through the entire voyage from harbor to catch and back. It is a place where earnest marine biology and unabashed B-kyu (roadside-attraction) spectacle share the same roof, and the giant-crab building alone makes it unmistakable from the road.