Crab (kani)

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Crabs (kani)

***** Location: Japan, worldwide
***** Season: Various, see below
***** Category: Animal

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Explanation

There are many different types of crabs in the waters of Japan. Some are kigo for winter, see below.

Here we list a few summer kigo:

crab (usually the very small ones, which are rarely eaten) 蟹

shore crabs, hamagani 浜蟹

sand crabs, sunagani砂蟹
... salt water species (Ocypoda stimsoni)

sea rock crab, isogani, 磯蟹
rock crabs, iwagani 岩蟹

Benkei crab, benkeigani 弁慶蟹
..... named after Benkei, a hero in the legends arount Yoshitsune.

river crabs, kawagani 川蟹

mountain crabs, yamagani 山蟹
... found in small mountain rivers, species Potamon

swamp crabs, zawagani 沢蟹, 澤蟹
... quite a delicacy ! Potamon dehaani
mud-legged crabs, doroashi gani　泥足蟹

small crab, kogani　小蟹
hidden crab, kakuregani 隠れ蟹
red-handed crab, akategani 赤手蟹　（あかてがに）
wandering crabs, blue crab, watarigani 渡り蟹
... swimming crab, gazami ガザミ

crab eggs, kani no ko 蟹の子
crab foaming, kani no awa 蟹の泡

..... .....

sand-digging crab, sunahori gani 砂堀蟹
... a mole crab, but not part of a haiku saijiki

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pickled crab, kanizuke 蟹漬

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Swamp crab, Zawagani


© www.choraku.co.jp/teien.htm

This kind of crab even lives in our drinking water tank outside in the garden. It is proof that the water is clear and fresh.

Gabi Greve

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Crabs in kigo for Winter

Queen crab, zuwaigani, ズワイガニ / ずわい蟹 (ずわいがに )
... Pacific snow crab
Chionoecetes opilio

http://www.sh.rim.or.jp/~ogawa/pages/zuwaigani.htm

Also called:
Crab from Echizen, Echizengani 越前蟹
Pine crab, matsubagani　松葉蟹

A type with very large legs, up to two meters long. An expensive delicacy in the winter season. There are special bus tours from Tokyo to special fish markets on the Sea of Japan, just to taste and then by these crabs.

. WASHOKU
First Catch of the Year, November in Toyooka, Hyogo


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King Crab, tarabagani 鱈場蟹
ship for processing these crabs, kani koosen 蟹工船

They are usually found in fishing grounds of the cod (tara) in Northern Japan.


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Worldwide use

France

Les crabes (kani)
Quand on parle de crabe dans un haïku, on sous-entend les jeunes crabes de l'été, qui sont très visibles à cette période de l'année. Par contre, en tant que fruit de mer, les crabes sont souvent consommés en hiver. Les crabes sont dotés d'une paire de pince et de quatre paires de pattes, et leur carapace très solide leur donne une apparence invulnérable.

Kani no kuru
Tokoro ni ono wo
Oku kuriya

Dans la grosse caisse
Où sont rangés outils et haches,
Un crabe se cache !

Seishi YAMAGUCHI
http://www.threeweb.ad.jp/logos/saijiki/saijikife.html

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USA, Chesapeake Bay

crab (callinectes sapidus Rathbun) —
Maryland's official crustacean, and a favorite food the Chesapeake region. Male crabs are 'jimmies,' female crabs are 'sooks.' Hardshells are crabs with hardshells, softshells are crabs that have shed their shells and have not yet hardened the new shell. Peelers are crabs just about to shed their shells. Crabs can be fished for using hand lines or crab pots. Chicken necks are a favorite bait.
For more info,
http://www.baydreaming.com/crabs.htm


work boats from Ewell,
scrapers on Big Thoroughfare,
Soft Crab your cities.

Harry Armistead, US
Previously published in 'Chesapeake Bay Haiku,' Audubon Naturalist News, Feb, 2002.

crab boat —

crab pot —
A trap used for catching crabs and ultimately derived from the Native American method of crabbing. Crab pots are submersed and tied together with arope and marked with small buoys. Boaters must keep an alert eye to avoid fouling their propellors with them.

crab shack —
A warm weather restaurant serving crabs and little else. A shack houses the kitchen and may have screened porches around it with picnic tables, it will also have open air tables. The tables are covered in newspaper for a tablecloth and the steamed crabs are dumped directly onto the newspaper. Crabs are broken open with wooden crab hammers and picked apart with the fingers and eaten.

crabbing —
Watermen typically spend winter oystering and summer fishing for crabs . Crabbing is also done recreationally and crab feasts on the beach are a favorite form of picnic.

Contribution of M. Kei, US
Editor of the Chesapeake Bay Saijiki

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Things found on the way

Japanese English Ocean Dictionary
http://www.oceandictionary.net/jez.html

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HAIKU

松の根に蟹かたむいてゐたりけり　
matsu no ne ni kani katamuite itarikeri

there -
at the root of a pine
there hangs a crab
　　
Noro Shunmin 野呂　春眠
(Tr. Gabi Greve)

Find a lot more haiku here:
Crabs (kani) in Japanese Haiku

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my beach walk
little carbs run
light as breeze

john tiong chunghoo
http://www.poemhunter.com/p/m/poem.asp?poet=63811&poem=2408309

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Related words

***** World Kigo Database : Fish as Kigo

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Crab dishes 蟹料理　in Japan


WASHOKU ... Japanese Food SAIJIKI


WASHOKU
FISH and SEAFOOD SAIJIKI


Back to the Worldkigo Index
http://worldkigodatabase.blogspot.com/

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