The new year 2023 is the 4th rabbit(“卯” (U)) in the zodiac, and the 40th in the 10 zodiac signs. This Chinese character '卯' means 4th in the zodiac, rabbit in animal, east in direction, and 6:00 in the morning and 2 hours before and after 6:00 in the morning. Nowadays, the “卯(U)” refers exclusively to the character of the year of the rabbit, the rabbit.
What kind of year will the year of the rabbit be? Even if I was asked that question, since I am not an expert, I would have to guess from the characteristics of the character's rabbit. Rabbits are good at jumping, so 2023 will be the year of leaping. Since there are many children, it will be a year of prosperity of descendants. And because the growth is fast, the economy will grow big.
In this way, rabbits are often taken up in a good way, but it seems that there were many misconceptions in the past. For example, rabbits are counted as "one wing and two wings." In the Edo period, townspeople were forbidden to eat meat, so they called it "chicken" and ate it.
On the other hand, I was told that I counted them as 'wings' because they were 'cormorants and herons', and that the rabbits I caught tied their ears together and were counted as 'one hand and two hands'. In addition to these counting methods, it was also believed that "if rabbit drink water, rabbit die", "if rabbit is lonely, rabbit die", or "rabbit do not speak". However, anyone who has ever had a pet in elementary school knows that it is a misunderstanding.
Rabbits often appear in old Japanese fairy tales. "White Rabbit of Inaba", "Kachikachi Mountain" and "Rabbit and Turtle". Through them, rabbits came to have various images. However, the situation changed dramatically when British picture book author Beatrix Potter's picture book "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" was introduced. The appearance of the main character, the hare, wearing a sky blue waistcoat and holding a carrot, changed the image of the rabbit to one color of "cute".
I tried to find out what characteristics will attract attention in 2023 with four-letter idioms that quote rabbits. Uhi Tosou ”烏飛兎走”: Crows live in the sun, and rabbits live in the moon. Enmoku Uji ”鳶目兎耳”: A person with sharp eyes and ears who doesn't miss even the slightest sound. Hito Ryubun ” 飛兎龍文”: A child who runs well and has excellent talent.
The character of last year 2022 is a tiger, and that of the coming year 2024 is Tatsu(Dragon). If Tora had passed the baton directly to Tatsu(Dragon), there might have been one or two conflicts. In that respect, things go smoothly just by getting along with the rabbit whose kindness is the selling point. I hope that the future world situation will be like that.
（Jan. 2 2023 Yoshihiro Fujiwara）
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