Daimyo Hermitaur - Monster Hunter

Year eight of the tradition — one Monster Hunter monster, stitched for my husband, every year. Daimyo Hermitaur came after Tigrex, Yian Kut-Ku, Astalos, Nargacuga, Rathalos, Zinogre, and Mizutsune.

Daimyo Hermitaur is a Carapaceon — the crab branch of the Monster Hunter bestiary — introduced in Monster Hunter 2 (2006). It’s a hermit crab scaled up to building size, in a red-and-white carapace, with broad flat claws it holds up like a pair of shields. The trick of the design is what’s on its back: Daimyo Hermitaur’s hindquarters are completely unarmoured and soft, so it scavenges a Monoblos skull and wears it as its shell — which is where the nickname Shield Crab comes from. In a fight it hides behind its claws, digs underground to come up beneath you, and fires pressurised jets of water. Tropical jungles and deserts, mostly.

The chart reads as a top-down, symmetrical take on the monster’s in-game icon: the pink-and-cream striped skull-shell spreading across the top, the dark antennae curling inward, an olive-and-gold face, and the black shield-claws planted at the bottom — the same stylised icon treatment that ties the whole set together.

Stitched on 14ct tea-dyed aida, continuing the warm aged-parchment ground I switched to for Yian Kut-Ku and Tigrex, in DMC.

Started June 27, 2026, finished August 14, 2026, and framed September 11, 2026 in the same chunky weathered barn-wood frame as the rest of the set.

Eight monsters, eight years, all on one wall.