sea slugs

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Works

Date&Material

 

The Jewel of the Sea

Umiushi (Japanese common name of Nudibranch –sea slugs-) is the generic name of the group in Opisthobranchia which shed their shell, is not particular name that taxonomically specifies the clade, is the word involves multiple categories that depends on person who use and whose knowledge, cultural background. Moreover, Opisthobranchia is not also clarified in taxonomy, thus makes difficulty in defining and classifying Umiushi, cause confusions in usage, therefore among some local areas, Sea Hares are called Umiushi.

The origin of the name Umiushi (literally means Sea Cow) is from Dorididaes in Nudibranchia, has tentacles resemble the horns of cows.

In the other case, they are called Umineko (means Sea Cat) in Ogasawara Archipelago, was likened their tentacles to Cats’ ears.
On the back of their bodies, there are second gills that seem like flowers, yet there are anuses at the center of which.

In addition, Umiushi written in Chinese characters as “海牛”, but is pronounced Kaigyu which indicates Sirenia (commonly known as sea cows), are aquatic herbivorous mammals such as Dugongs and Manatees.

The feedings are various, ranges from carnivorous to herbivorous. Most of them feed on poisonous sessile organisms (animals), accumulate toxins in their body, thus are inedible, and their intense and bright color are supposed to be the warning of that, yet on the other hand, are said that allows them to camouflage especially in coral reefs in the tropics.
Some others such as Phyllodesmium longicirrum and Plocamopherus tilesii have the abilities of bioluminescence or photosynthesis.
Recently, among some divers the observation of see slugs have been poplar, that led to the publications of the illustrated reference books about these species, drew public attention.

The reason why they have become so popular is supposed to be their appearances that are strangely shaped and brightly colored as they are called “The jewels of the sea”, and also their behaviors are not evasive against human compared with fish, allow divers to observe them easily.
Thus increased the population of the observers dive into the sea, and consequent discoveries of the new species around subemergent coastlines.

Insidentally, the boom of Japanese anime character named Pikachu from “Pokémon” resembles Thecacera pacifica –a kind of Nudibranch-, multiplied their popularity.

As it was referred above, they are inedible, but there is a marine biologist who tried to eat them, is the 124th Emperor of Japan Hirohito also known as Emperor Shōwa.
He said “This is for my experiment.”, and cooked them with sugar and soy sauce, then smiled “It becomes such smaller.”, and described its size by fingers circle. The former chamberlain of Japan Sukemasa Irie said “They were tasteless and too hard to chew, but the emperor had them 3 times...”

There are many strange nicknames of Umiushi, for example, Hexabranchidae is called “Nude Dancer”, and there are more strange nickname such as “Internet Umiushi”, “Turtle Sage Umiushi”, “Tranparent Frill Umiushi”, “Fruits Punch Umiushi”

This work was made when I was a MA student at the college, involved the technique called Precision Casting that uses rubber mold cavities, enables variable reproduction by one mold cavity, moreover was Damascening, is the art of inlaying different materials into another, that enable to depict the various patterns of the color.