Uni (ウニ – Sea Urchin)

Both

English

Japanese

Yesterday, I wrote about the fish ‘harisenbon‘ (ハリセンボン – porcupinefish/blowfish).

昨日は「ハリセンボン」という生き物について書きました。

Today, I would like to talk about ‘uni‘ (ウニ), which has many spines as well as porcupinefish.

今日は、ハリセンボンと同じように多くの棘を持つ「ウニ」を紹介します。

‘Uni’ is known as “sea urchin” in English, and it can be written as 海胆 or 海栗 in kanji.

「ウニ」は漢字で「海胆」や「海栗」と書きます。

海 means “sea,” 胆 means “organ,” and 栗 means “chestnut.”

「海」は “sea,” 「胆」 “organ,” 栗は “chestnut” を意味します。

This is because the shucked sea urchin looks like “organ” and the outer shape of sea urchin looks like “chestnut.”

ウニの実が「胆」に見えることや、ウニの外形が「栗」のように見えることに由来します。

Incidentally, according to the survey of an aquarium, the number of spines of a purple sea urchin was 2850.

ちなみに、ある水族館でムラサキウニの棘の数を数えたところ、2850本あったそうです。