What will the Year of the Rabbit bring? While the year of the Tiger that precedes it can be a time of war and violence (and indeed, 2022 was a year full of war and destruction), will the Year of the Rabbit bring peace and prosperity back to us? In Japan and China, anyway, the rabbit is considered as a lucky animal and as sign of peace.
[Ukiyo-e by Utagawa Toyokuni, 1819, of a hare writing a wish for the New Year]
In Japanese, "rabbit" is "usagi (兔)." Usagi can also mean "hare", but hares are different animals (they have a larger size, longer ears, and longer hind legs) and there is a specific word for hares as well, "no-usagi." But as they are often confused in folklore in Japan, below we will speak about both rabbits and hares.
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The Rabbit is the fourth in the sequence of twelve zodiac animals, and the Year
of the Rabbit is associated with the Earthly Branch symbol 卯 (pronounced "bo" or "u").
In the Chinese Zodiac, the rabbit (hare) represents longevity, discretion and good luck. People born under the sign of
the Rabbit are believed to be friendly, intelligent, cautious, skillful,
gentle, and quick. They dislike fighting and like to find
solutions through compromise and negotiation. On the negative side,
Rabbit people have the potential to be superficial, stubborn, melancholy
and overly-discreet.
[Japanese hare]
The Japanese rabbit, a native species with gray or brown fur that turns
white in winter in snowy areas, is an endemic species.
Rabbits already existed in considerable numbers in the Jomon period (14000 BCE - 1000 BCE), as rabbit bones have been excavated from shell middens in various regions from that time.
Because rabbits have a large habitat, are diurnal, reproduce at a high
rate, and are easily seen by people, they are familiar animals and have
been anthropomorphized and used as motifs in fairy tales and myths.
[The rabbit in the moon pounding rice cakes]
The
major one of these is the "rabbit in the moon." Since the
pattern of the moon's surface as seen from Japan has long
looked like a rabbit standing on tiptoe and pounding rice cakes (mochi) with the help of an usu, a Japanese mortar, there have been folk tales about rabbits living on the moon since ancient times. A similar tradition has been handed down in other Asian countries, including China. In China, the mortar is said to be used to
pound the ingredients of an elixir of long life into powder, rather than the very practical rice cakes in the Japanese example. This legend also gave rise to local festivals in those diverse
cultures, such as the Mid-Autumn Festival of China, or the Moon-viewing
Festival of Japan, all of which celebrate the legend of the Moon rabbit.
[Tsuba (sword guard) with rabbit looking at the moon]
The story of the "Rabbit in the Moon" is found in the "Konjaku Monogatari"
(Tales Ancient and Modern), but originally derived from the
Jataka, the tales of the previous lives of the Buddha written in India. Here is a link to the Sasa Jataka at the website "Sacred Texts." The story tells how the Buddha (while still a Bodhisattva) was born as a rabbit. Even as a rabbit, he possessed incredible virtue and goodness. He had three disciples: an otter, a jackal, and a monkey, who, through his teaching, forgot their lower animal nature. Now it was customary on holy days to offer alms to anyone who passed through their forest. Although his three companions had ample means to feed a guest, the rabbit realized he had nothing but the meager blades of grass he ate to sustain himself. So he decided to offer his own flesh as food. Then the deity Taishakuten came by in the guise of an old, weary traveler who had lost his way. The four beasts rushed to his aid: the otter supplied him with several fish, the jackal with a lizard and some sour milk, and the monkey with some ripe mangoes. Seeing that the man had built a fire, the rabbit explained that he was offering his own body and then, without hesitation, jumped into the swirling flames. Taishakuten rejoiced, reached into the fire and pulled out the rabbit and then lifted him up into the heavens and displayed him before the gods. He also adorned the face of the moon with the rabbit's image. So even today the image of the rabbit can be seen in the full moon.
[Okuninushi (Daikoku) and the rabbit]
A hare also plays an important role in the mythical story "Inaba no Shirahagi (White Hare of Inaba)" in the Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters, 720 CE), the oldest Japanese myth-historical record:
"The god Okuninushi had eighty deities as his brothers, but they were all forced to leave the land to Okuninushi. The reason was the following: Each of these eighty deities wished to marry Princess Yakami of Inaba, and they traveled together to Inaba, having Okuninushi (the youngest one) carry their bags as an attendant. When they arrived at Cape Keta, they found a naked (= stripped of his fur) hare lying down. Then the eighty deities spoke to the hare, saying: "What you should do is to bathe in the sea-water here, and lie on the slope of a high mountain exposed to the blowing of the wind." So the hare followed the instructions of the eighty deities, and lay down. Then, as the sea-water dried, the skin of its body all split with the blowing of the wind, so that it lay crying from the pain. But Okuninushi, who came last of all, saw the hare, and said: "Why are you lying there weeping?" The hare replied: "I was in the Island of Oki, and wished to cross over to this land, but had no means of crossing over. For this reason I deceived the crocodiles of the sea, saying: 'Let you and me compete, and compute the numbers of our respective tribes. So do you go and fetch every member of your tribe, and make them all lie in a row across from this island to Cape Keta. Then I will tread on them, and count them as I run across. Hereby shall we know whether it or my tribe is the larger.' Upon my speaking thus, they were deceived and lay down in a row, and I trod on them and counted them as I came across, and was just about to get on land, when I said triumphantly: 'You have been deceived by me.' As soon as I had finished speaking, the crocodile who lay the last of all seized me and stripped off all my clothing (=fur). As I was weeping and lamenting this, the eighty deities came by and exhorted me: 'Bathe in the salt water, and lie down exposed to the wind.' So, on my doing as they had instructed me, my whole body hurt." Thereupon Okuninushi advised the hare: "Go quickly now to the river-mouth, wash your body with the fresh water, then take the pollen of the sedge growing at the river-mouth, spread it about, and roll about upon it, so that your body will be restored to its original state." So the hare did as it was instructed, and its body became as it had been originally. This was the White Hare of Inaba. So the hare said to Okuninushi: "These eighty Deities shall certainly not get the Princess of Yakami. Although you are carrying their baggage, you shall obtain her."" (edited from the translation by Basil Hall Chamberlain, 1882)
[Netsuke of a rabbit]
'Usagi' (rabbits or hares) are not a very common subject of Japanese
art, except in small-scale paintings, prints, carvings (netsuke) and lacquer decorations - so mainly in the applied arts. Artists of the Rinpa school, however, often crossed borders between the
media, and the British Museum owns a six-fold screen by a painter of the Rinpa school, probably of the generation after Korin
(1658-1716), which shows rabbits frolicking among the waving grasses on Musashi Moor.
Japanese Seasons