Collectors of tsutsugaki textiles generally consider the rabbit to be one of the most desirable images to acquire.  The rabbit motif is rich in meaning and allusion, and, aside from being adorable when rendered well by a tsutsugaki artisan, it also references a great deal of  ancient Japanese lore.
The white rabbit has numerous auspicious and quasi-religious associations in Japanese tradition.  It was thought to embody the spirit of the moon and in some early texts from the Heian Period (794-1185) the rabbit fit into myths with the tortoise and crane, and symbolized long life.

The Japanese look at the moon, and even today, the folklore is to see a rabbit pounding mochi, using a mortar and pestle, making glutenous rice.  We in the West see a “man in the moon.”There is another myth concerning the rabbit and the ocean, that is very dramatic and complex and of which are several variations.The story, is eloquently and succintly told at the website, Myth Encyclopedia, and is captioned from that site, below:

“The Izumo Cycle. The Izumo Cycle of myths features the god Ôkuninushi, a descendant of Susano-ô. One of the most famous stories is about Ôkuninushi and the White Rabbit.

According to this tale, Ôkuninushi had 80 brothers, each of whom wanted to marry the same beautiful princess. On a journey to see the princess, the brothers came upon a rabbit with no fur in great pain at the side of the road. They told the animal that it could get its fur back by bathing in saltwater, but this only made the pain worse. A little while later, Ôkuninushi arrived and saw the suffering rabbit. When he asked what had happened, the rabbit told him how it had lost its fur.

After hearing this story, Ôkuninushi told the rabbit to bathe in clear water and then roll in some grass pollen on the ground. The rabbit followed this plan, and new white fur soon grew on its body. The rabbit, who was actually a god, rewarded Ôkuninushi by promising that he would marry the beautiful princess. Ôkuninushi’s success angered his brothers, and a number of other myths in the Izumo Cycle tell about the struggles between them.”

This beautiful indigo dyed cotton tstutsugaki panel is shown here in part: not shown is its upper half on which is rendered a resist dyed famly crest, the subject being stylized  folding fans.  The entire piece measures 83″ x 13″/211 cm x 33 cm and it dates to the late 19th century.  This is a panel from a futon cover; the futon cover was reconfigured from a yogi, or sleeping kimono.

Shown today is a faded, patched and elegant indigo dyed cotton boro futon cover which most likely was originally made in the late 19th century.  This beauty has been reassembled from a sleeping yogi–a kimono shaped duvet– and has had a long life keeping people warm at night.

The large, encircled flower motif is a kamon or a family crest, and it shows a stylized paulownia flower.  Paulownia, or kiri, is the only terrestrial object that the legendary Chinese and Japanese phoenix will alight upon, and the phoenix will drink dew from the petals of this flower–according to legend, of course.  This kamon, and the other flower motives shown on this repurposed yogi, were applied using a the tsutsugaki method of freehand paste resist dyeing.

The tea cup sitting on the antique Korean stool in the photo above is the work of Hanako Nakazato, of the famous Karatsu, Japan dynasty of potters.  Her work is simply gorgeous and you can find it at Sara, in NYC.The fading of the blue from its original deep, rich tones  to this palette of  powdery hues is just beautiful.  The bottom of this futon cover shows a dance of stylized, hand drawn chrysanthemums and paulownia flowers.  What a magnificently artful arrangement of forms the tsutsugaki artist rendered on this yogi.

The fading and the repairs add character to this piece–as do the dark blue, cotton patches that are collaged on the surface.

The hand spun cotton threads add an intrinsic integrity to this piece, and they also enrich the surface of  this old and rustic Japanese country textile.