Rabbits Abound

While visiting local kilns with an overseas visitor recently, I was asked, "What's up with all the rabbits on everything?"

Now, I've seen more Japanese pottery than you can shake a stick at, and I can report that while "everything" is indeed an exaggeration, I certainly have seen my fair share of usagi (rabbits) on pottery.

Rabbits jumping across waves, rabbits looking up at the moon, rabbits flying through the air, solitary rabbits, groups of rabbits, big and small... It seems that our furry friends' reputation of being able to reproduce abundantly, extends to being reproduced abundantly on Japanese ceramics.

Well, if like my visitor you are thinking "What is up with all those rabbits?" then I have an answer for you... or rather, two.

First, the popular rabbits and moon motif comes from an ancient Chinese tale of a hare (yes, I know hares are not rabbits, but let's not split hares... hairs... rabbits... what was I saying?) that lives in the moon, pounding magic herbs into an elixir of eternal life. This sacred rabbit was believed to live 1000 years (someone forgot to take their elixir), turning white after 500 of those years. In typical Japanese fashion, this Chinese tale was assimilated and "Japanized" in the process. The rabbit in the Japanese moon is pounding rice into tasty rice cakes, called mochi.

Second, the popular rabbits and waves motif comes from a story in the Kojiki (Japan's oldest history book) called "inaba no shirousagi," or the "White Rabbit of Inaba." According to this legend, a white rabbit crossed the ocean from Okino Island to the mainland at Inaba (modern-day Shimane prefecture) by using the backs of sharks as stepping stones and in doing so appeared to be running over the tops of the waves. This story became the subject of a famous Noh theater song.

While these two rabbit-legends are not the only two of their kind in Japan, they are two of the most famous, and account for many of the delightful rabbit motifs seen on Japanese ceramics.

This fall when the rice fields turn from green to gold and the night air gets chilly, Japanese people of all ages and persuasions will look up to the heavens, see the friendly rabbit in the moon pounding his mochi, and perhaps more than one will sing that old Noh song:

While the moon floats over the ocean
A rabbit runs over the waves
What interesting island scenery

Dave

Inside Kouhou Kiln

We are excited to be adding many new gorgeous works from Kouhou Kiln to our online pottery shop in the coming month. Kouhou Kiln specializes in iro-Nabeshima porcelain. The items are so near perfect, it's hard to believe they are hand-painted. It is this quality that makes Kouhou's work worthy of inclusion in the Tokyo Toguri Museum Porcelain Collection. Check out these two recently added tea and sake cups (top of page) to get a taste of things to come.

The Kouhou Kiln shop is one of my favorite places in Imari. Here are a few pictures from the interior of this beautiful thatch-roof building.

Dave