It is winter. It is crab season. Have you had any yet? The other day I finally got my hands on "matsuba crab" at a certain place in the Tokyo area. A seasonal specialty from the San'in region through the Hokuriku belt, what I received was a direct shipment from Tottori Port in Tottori Prefecture＝photo top. Fresh crab landed in the morning reached Tokyo the same day and was simply boiled. Bite in without any sauce and the flavor spreads slowly through your mouth. There is no fishy smell at all. "Lemon soy sauce and the like are for masking the odor of frozen crab," someone at the shop told me.
"Matsuba crab" is a mature male snow crab (zuwai crab), but the name varies by region. In Fukui it is "Echizen crab," in Kaga in Ishikawa and the Noto area "Kano crab," and in Kyoto, crab landed at the Taiza fishing port on the Tango Peninsula is called "Taiza crab," among others. Crab from Tsuiyama Port and Shibayama Port near Kinosaki Onsen in Hyogo are being branded as "Tsuiyama crab" and "Shibayama crab." You also hear "Hokkaido matsuba crab" nowadays. Hokkaido, famous for king crab and hair crab, was not so keen on promoting snow crab, but with the fishing industry in a slump, they seem to be putting more effort into it lately.
These names apply to males only. Females are called sekogani (Fukui, Kyoto, Hyogo, Tottori), oyagani (Tottori), koppe (Kyoto), kobako (Ishikawa), and so on. Males can reach a carapace width of 15 cm, while females stay around 7–8 cm, which is why they are distinguished.
There is also the closely similar beni-zuwai crab, slightly smaller than snow crab, and to tell them apart people sometimes say "hon-zuwai crab" (true snow crab). Beni crab is redder raw, but after boiling they look much the same and are hard to tell apart. Generally beni crab is said to be more watery, but depending on the specimen and freshness, that may not always hold.
Nationwide catch in fiscal 2011 was 4,717 tons worth ¥9.5 billion. By prefecture, the top three—Hyogo (1,418 tons, ¥3.4 billion), Tottori (1,119 tons, ¥2 billion), and Fukui (607 tons, ¥1.5 billion)—accounted for about 70 percent of the total＝chart above, from the Hamasaka Town Fisheries Cooperative site in Hyogo Prefecture.
Writing this makes me want crab again. Mainichi Travel on B1 of Palaceside Building also offers tours where you can eat crab on the Sea of Japan side. One example is "Wakasa Water Offering and Todaiji Water Drawing: Obama, Amanohashidate, and Ine Funaya Tour" (two nights, three days)—lunch on day two is a "crab kaiseki" at Amanohashidate, I hear.