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I don't remember meeting anybody who doesn't like the cute little creature with two long ears that everybody knows. The rabbits -- wild in nature or as sweet companions at home -- are probably one of the most loved animals around the world. They are also very popular in the world of Japanese antiques and kimonos, and happen to be one of my favorite motifs as well.
In Japanese designs, rabbits are often depicted together with elements from nature, the typical examples being such combinations as 'rabbit with moon', 'rabbit with wave', and 'rabbit with snow'.
Among them, rabbit and the moon seems to be the most well known, and a typical picture will show a rabbit pounding a rice cake in the full moon. The association of rabbit with full moon originally derived from China, the only difference from that of the Japanese version being the fact that the rabbit was pounding a medicine for eternal life in the moon. Full moon is called "mochi-zuki" and to pound rice, "mochi-tsuki" in Japanese. The similar two words may have somehow got mixed up as time passed by. Now rabbits are the famous rice pounders that everybody sees at night every month.
'Rabbit with wave' design is said to have appeared sometime in the early Edo period. There are various theories as to the origin of this design, but the well-known two are the Noh song 'Takeojima' in which there is a famous phrase where the moon rabbit runs through the tides when the light of the moon is reflected upon the sea. The other one is the Japanese folktale 'The white rabbit of Inaba'.
In regards to 'rabbit with snow', I haven't yet figured out the roots of the design, but I can tell you that it is often depicted in summer kimonos with snowflake patterns to evoke some cooling effects. By the way, the stylized snowflake patterns also appeared during Edo period and are symbolic of rich harvest.
Incidentally, Sugae Masumi (1754-1829), an Edo period writer mentioned in one of his travelogues that there were five mountains in the northeastern region of Japan (Tohoku area) where a "yuki-gata" snow reading took place, and one of the patterns that the snow formed particularly resembled a shape of a rabbit. Yuki-gata is an old custom to forcast annual agricultural events according to the shape of glacier or snow that the nature built on the mountain surface. A big glacier rabbit might have stunningly resembled a pattern of the rabbit on snowflakes...
By the way, I often see little grey rabbits hopping around my office garden. If I made a design out of them, perhaps it would be something like 'rabbits among grasses'. In fact that reminds me of an old pattern on a brocaded cloth which arrived from Ming (China) around the Momoyama period (1568-1600). There WAS a rabbit in there resting under the shades of the flowers and grasses!
Little friends in the spring garden. I never thought you had been already present in the oldest Japanese rabbit pattern. Now I've found one more reason to be fond of you.
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