previous | next | poetic gallery
Tsuki no Usagi
Cordyline Red Star, Bittersweet Nightshade, Columbine
Bronze Vase
Item# ujik313
tiny bright
nightshade stars align —
usagi!
nightshade stars align —
usagi!
Attentive and alert, usagi nestles within a compound base of columbine leaves.
This arrangement recalls the story of tsugi no usagi, rabbit of the moon, associated with new beginnings and good fortune.
Ask a Japanese person what they see when they look at the moon and they will likely tell you the legendary story of tsugi no usagi:
A monkey, an otter, a jackal, and a rabbit resolve to practice charity on the day of the full moon, believing a demonstration of great virtue would earn a great reward. When an old man begged for food, the monkey gathered fruits from the trees and the otter collected fish, while the jackal wrongfully pilfered a lizard and a pot of milk-curd. The rabbit, who knew only how to gather grass, instead offered its own body, throwing itself into a fire the man had built. The rabbit, however, was not burnt. The old man revealed himself to be Śakra (ruler of the heavens according to Buddhist cosmology). Touched by the rabbit’s virtue he drew the likeness of the rabbit on the moon for all to see. It is said the lunar image is still draped in the smoke that rose when the rabbit cast itself into the fire.
Look closely at the next full moon and you will see the image of a rabbit pounding rice with a pestle, making rice cakes ‘mochitsuki’. The term for full moon mochizuki is pronounced the same, forever linking rice cakes with the image of a full moon!
