Lake Biwa Museum

For most people, “zoos” and “aquariums” are places where you go to see living animals. “Museums”, on the other hand, are usually places where you go to see preserved specimens of dead animals.  At Lake Biwa Museum in Shiga Prefecture, visitors can see a little of both.  The museum features exhibits explaining the natural history, the cultural history, and the biology of Lake Biwa.  At the same time, about one-third of the museum is comprised of an aquarium showcasing the aquatic creatures of Lake Biwa as well as creatures from other parts of the world.  

Visitors to the museum will usually first pass through the section of more typical “museum-type” natural history displays featuring geological, fossil, and biological specimens, and cultural history displays showing artifacts of human life around the lake.

The Aquarium Section

This section occupies an entire floor of one of the wings of the museum, and is located on the floor below the earlier mentioned museum-type display room.  The entrance to the aquarium area features interesting wire sculptures of fish.

A number of the exhibits featuring “local” fish of Lake Biwa were constructed such that the glass window of the tank also served as a glass window of the building itself, with the fish occupying a pond physically located on the outside of the building.  Since my visit was in the middle of summer, I thought that it might be very interesting to visit again during the winter when the pond outside might be surrounded by snow.

Many of the exhibits were simple rectangular fish tanks.

Some of the tanks were more interesting in design.  This tubular passageway allowed you to experience a walk on the bottom of Lake Biwa.

There was a special tank dedicated to the Lake Biwa Catfish.  These creatures are said to grow much larger than ordinary catfish.  The catfish in this tank were quite shy, and they hid in the shadows of the tank.  Fortunately, a metal replica of the catfish allowed visitors to see what the animal looked like.

The display below simulated a modern stream environment populated by Ayu Sweetfish.

Exhibit for Japanese Stream Toad

Birds of Lake Biwa

The display pictured below housed a Black-headed gull Yurikamome (Larus ridibundus) and a pair of Little Grebes Kaitsuburi (Tachybaptus ruficollis) which is the prefectural bird of Shiga.

The Foreigners

In addition to housing creatures native to Lake Biwa, this aquarium also featured creatures from other regions.  One of these was a lone Baikal Seal, the only living mammal featured in this collection.  The display of this animal might be called into question: it is not native to Lake Biwa and doesn’t seem to be a natural “fit” in this collection, and the display area seemed a bit too small.  Although this animal was more than 1.5 meters in length, the exhibit area was only about 6 or 7 meters wide and only about 3 or 4 meters from the front glass to the back wall.  About one-third of this small interior consisted of a concrete shelf, with the other two-thirds being a featureless swimming pool about 1.5 meters deep.  One gets the impression that this seal may have been introduced into the collection mainly in order to attract crowds with its cuteness.

Another exhibit featuring specimens from other lands was a large tank housing large “ancient” fishes: sturgeons and gars that are said to have retained the same form since they evolved millions of years ago.

Opportunities for Animal Encounters

There was a touch tank featuring small animals such as crayfish and other small stream creatures.  Contact was supervised by museum staff.

Educational Efforts

The fact that this aquarium was part of a museum was evident in the great amount of educational signage and displays located throughout the aquarium area.  

Many of these exhibits centered on the relation between the animals and the humans living near Lake Biwa, and one particularly interesting exhibit was a full-size replica of a fish seller’s storefront.

The plastic models of the fish were amazingly realistic.

There were also plastic replicas of popular dishes made with fish from Lake Biwa.

This particular exhibit explained a dish called funazushi, which is basically fermented carp.

By lifting the cover of this white cylinder, visitors can experience the pungent smell of funazushi.  I am told it is most similar to blue cheese.

Almost Alive

Although this blog is about zoos and aquariums and living animals, I would like to spend some space introducing the part of the museum (the part with the dead animals) that was dedicated to the nature of Lake Biwa.  This area featured a number of taxidermy specimens of amazingly high quality.  For starters, these Cormorants in the tree looked very much alive. 

Even the Cormorants’ guano, which is a problem in some locations around Lake Biwa, was faithfully recreated.

You could pick up this replica to get a sense of how little a Cormorant weighs.

This forest scene featured a taxidermy specimen of a deer.

The fallen leaves and tree roots appeared to be the real thing.

My favorite area was the section featuring replica plants and preserved animals.

This wall display of the birds of Lake Biwa included 113 individual specimens.

The specimens appeared as if they could fly away at any second.

There were also specimens of the mammals of the area.  These also seemed as if they were still alive.

These mice specimens looked so alive that it was almost creepy.

Food and Souvenirs

There was a museum coffee shop which featured dishes made of large-mouth bass.  The bass, originally introduced to Japan from the United States, has been designated as a problematic invasive species, and there are campaigns to create consumer demand for the fish caught as part of eradication efforts.

Getting There

Since a friend drove me to the museum, I can’t report on how much the public transportation costs.  According to the museum brochure, visitors taking the train should get off at the JR Kusatsu Station.  From there, visitors can ride the Omi Dentetsu bus heading to “Karasuma Hantou” which will take about 25 minutes.  Alternatively, a taxi from JR Kusatsu Station, or from JR Moriyama Station, will take about 20 minutes.  Admission to the museum is 750 yen for adults, 400 yen for high school and college students. 

(Note: All photos taken in this post were taken during a visit on July 16, 2016.  The comments in this post are based on observations made on that day.  Conditions may have since changed.  Please check it out for yourself!)