something different for a happy easter

www.metmuseum.org  Rogers Fund, 1907

To Western eyes it may be a surprise to see a helmet fashioned to look like a rabbit.  To a Japanese samurai, it made perfect sense:  every child knew of the Rabbit in the Moon, who offered to give up his very life to feed a hungry stranger.  That discipline and sacrifice was a huge part of a samurai's belief.  At this helmet's page at the Metropolitan Museum you can hear a very short podcast about the Moon Rabbit's origin story (click "Audio"), and at this page you can read the different forms the story takes in various traditions.

May this Easter see you in the bravest spirits for a fiercely beautiful spring (or autumn, if you are one of my friends from down under)!

enjoy easter fiercely!

thanks internet archive (PD)

"This is a fierce bad Rabbit; look at his savage whiskers, and his claws and his turned-up tail."

I always had a soft spot for Beatrix Potter's thug bunny.  If you recall that you did too, you may refresh your friendship with him here at Internet Archive.  I think that Beatrix Potter knew she had a streak of Fierce Bad Rabbit herself, thinly veneered.  It's right there in her style - creatures recorded down to the last realistic hair, dressed up for civilized life but ready to shuck it all off at any moment.

Happy Easter to you all, dear Museum friends.  

Remember to share your carrots!

And be careful where you shuck off your veneer.