The Heike Crab seems to have a Samurai Face on its back. What's the Explanation?

Where there's a will there's a way, and when you type six words per minute as I do, there is a will.The Samurai CrabMorning arrived coldandgray, with the wavespomis- ingmore storms to came. It was April, in the year 1185, and the southern Inland Sea ofJapan was noplace for the meek. Ships stirred restlessly, and trwbled voices carried softly across the waters in the small inlet named Dan-no-ura. The EmperorAntoku looked out from his flagship across the sea and knew that his death, and the death of his people, was approaching from the east. For nearlyftftyyears now the stm~le had raged between hispeople, the Heike or House oflaira, and the wawh known as the Genji, orM+amto Clan, from the east- ernprovinces. At stake was nothing less than total eon-trol of the world as they knew it. Antoku no longer held out any hope for sur- row/. All omenshad been wrong. TheprCTMus day had seen an enonnous school of dolphin approachin4 his flag- ship, marked by~ry banners with the stylized butterfly &o of the House of Taira. The Royal Diviner had been requested. His prediction: that if the school of dolphin divided and went around the ship, the Heike mfd survive, but if they dived beneath the waves, so too would the Heike warrWrsgo down in defeat. The dolphin had dived before even reaching the Emperor's vessel. Antoku surveyed the scene around him. One thousand ships made up the Heike fleet, and each bore samurai trained fw battle. But across the waves, ap- proaching as me with the oncoming storm, were three thousand ships of the Gn$. Antoku turned, his very small hands clutching the dove-grey robe that denoted his status, his Im8 black hair man'ng in the damp wind. Behind him was the nun of the second order, who approathed him and wrapped his small body in her awn flomng robe. ((Grandmother, where are you taking me?"asked the Emperor, to which she replied, "There is another kingdom, beneath the waves .. "And clutch- ingthe boy -for the Emperor was but nineyears old -to her breast, she disappeared aver the side of the ship, taking with her the last hope of the House of Taira. The subsequent massacre of the Heike was both quick and brutal.None of the samurai survived, and only a few of the wives and consorts were allowed to live, claimed as spoils of battle by the victoriousGenji. The war was over. The Heike were no more, and the Genji would rule Japan forever. HE ABOVE STORY IS TRUE. There was indeed a large-scale naval encounter in the small bay called Dan-no-ura, southern Inland Sea of Ja- pan, in the spring of 1185 (in some references March, in others April), and the outcome of the battle was a decisive victory' for the Genji. More important, though, than establishing the Genji as the ruling parry, the battle marked the end of the Age of Courtiers in Japan (A.D. 710-1185), with power transferring from the court aristocracy to the warrior class, and ushering in the age of the military leaders, or shoguns. Called by historians the period of Medieval and Feudal Japan, the shogunate was to last until 1868. History tells us, through several extant versions of the Heike watori (story of the Heike), that the Genji arrived in a storm and there- fore surprised the Heike, that the Emperor Anroki was only nine, that he (or at least his guardian; chose death over defeat. and that those loval Heikt samurai not choosing death by their own hands were thrown into the sea by the conquerors. The events are not difficult to believe; it is the nature 01 man to war. But the tale has generated other storic that are not true, and they are the subject of this essay. The first story generated by the events depicted in the Heike monogatmi is that the Heike still live on the floor of the Sea of Japan. Actually. some survivors of the Heike lineage do survive, and they commemorate in April of each year the battle of Dan-no-ura, and the events that followed the massacre, in coastal Japanese villages. But what lives on the floor of the Sea of Japan and surround- ing bodies of water are not people, but crabs. Ac- cording to the myth, these crabs are the ghosts of the Heike warriors. hideouslv transformed after their loss and doomed to walk the abyss for alltime. How could such a myth originate? Actu- ally, it is easy to see. These crabs, whose scientific name was until recently Donae japica, have a pattern of grooves and ridges on their backs that bear an uncannv resemblance to a human face more precisely, they resemble the grimacing face of a samurai warrior. These are samurai crabs, known throughout the Orient as Heike-tfani,the crab of the Heike. I do not know when this myth first ap-peared. There is no mention of samurais turning into crabs in the versions of the Heike mmuyatUn I have seen. But the legend must be fairly old; al-though the exact date of the painting depicting this event on the opposite page is not known, the Japa- nese artist, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, lived from 1797to 1861. Furthermore, the stylization of this painting indicates that the story on which it was basedwas not new but had been handed down from previous Generations..Et cetera

Yeah, alright. Sorry I snapped at you. I re-read your post and I think I understand your intent a little better. To be fair to myself though, your words DID seem to imply that the number-crunching was in the pdf, even if it was not your intention to so imply.-I might also add that you couldn't have cut and pasted any part of this article, because it is a scan. I memorized and re-typed the relevant paragraph. 

  Touchy touchy.I could not begain to break the numbers down for you because I COULD NOT BEGAIN TO BREAK DOWN THE NUMBERS. PERIOD.  I did not imply that the referance had at all to do with the number crunch. Why would I cut and paste parts of an article that I listed a link to? You obviously went and read it as will anyone interested. I would never provide a link to something I haven't thoroughly read, at least without stating such. Also, I am very fond of words and full well know their meaning when I use them. I believe that I have shown you considerably more respect than you have shown me.Lets do it again sometime..  

Thanks Buddyicon. I read this article that you referenced this morning. Have you read it yourself? There isn't any "drastic number crunch" of any kind that you can "intrinsically intuit" or would have to "begain to break down for me." (Very condescending language! You apparently do not realize how incredibly inappropriate this is, so I'll overlook it. But really. You could at least know the meaning of words like "intrinsic" before you use them to talk down to me.) -But there is an excellent point near the end that does make the whole Heike Crab story unlikely. I'll save you the trouble of actually reading the article that you have asked others to read. Here's the clincher: "...the fishermen who make their living from the Sea of Japan do not eat ANY of these crabs. Whether they resemble a samurai, a human face, or merely a crab is a moot point; all are thrown back. For Dorippe japonica reaches a maximum size of only 31 mm (1.2 inches) across the back, not at all worth the trouble of retrieving from the nets, let alone sorting through to see which ones resemble a face and which do not."-So you were right, even though you could not say why, and I learned something today.

Read through; http://crustacea.nhm.org/ people/martin/publication s/pdf/103.pdf It explains the bases for my opinion pretty well... There's also a drastic number crunch that I intrinsically intuit but couldn't begain to break down for you, to do with the number of Japanese fisherman times trips times crabs caught devided into total number of crabs minus crabs that dont "look" like great great grandpa samuri. The whole thing just fails to hold up to scrutiny. Imoho.Ps. I am a big fan of Carl Sagan.

I'm interested! If I may take the role of the objective moderator, I'd like to ask you: What is it about the story that strikes you as bogus? At which point during the Carl Sagan video does a red flag pop up to say "Stop. This is BS.?"-Really, I'm honestly curious.

  Yes, and I should show absolutely no discrimination as to what I should or shouldn't believe. Perhaps you should take your own advice and do some further research. It's a bogus fact in my book.

Just do an Internet search to find out it's true. The Internet does have a vast information system available to anyone. It's fast and easy.

I asked you first! (I just wanted to get people's opinions on it, not lecture people on what is or is not the correct answer.)