Fukui: Giant Dinosaur Mural Welcomes Shinkansen

The Yomiuri Shimbun

11:35 JST, January 20, 2024

FUKUI — A giant mural of dinosaurs appeared near Fukui Station, where the Hokuriku Shinkansen will stop from March 16, with the aim of trying to raise the profile of Fukui Prefecture where several fossils have been excavated.

More dinosaurs, including life-size Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops robots, will be installed around the station, eventually bringing the total number of statues to 19.

The 11-meter-long, 24-meter-wide mural has been put up on the wall of Hokuriku Electric Power Co.’s Fukui Branch building near the station. Stickers of 21 dinosaurs of seven species — including Fukuiraptor and Fukuisaurus, fossils of which have been excavated in the prefecture — are pasted on the windows from the fourth through to the sixth floor of the building.

The mural can be seen from the Shinkansen’s windows just before arriving at Fukui Station from Kanazawa. It will be illuminated from 5 p.m. to around 11 p.m.

Meanwhile, a 3-meter square mural depicting Plesiosaurus, believed to have swam in the sea during the Mesozoic era, was unveiled underneath the elevated tracks of Echizen Railway’s Fukui Station.

“We’ll create a world of dinosaurs that would rival that of any theme park,” a Fukui prefectural government official said.