In Japan there is a folktale about 80 brothers who set out to visit a princess to seek her hand in marriage. On the way they met an injured rabbit who had been skinned by some crocodiles after he tricked them into helping him cross over the sea.
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#FairyTaleTuesday #folklore

The poor rabbit was begging for help. All the brothers were cruel, and told the rabbit to bathe in salt water, which of course left him in more pain. The youngest brother, Okuninushi, was gentle-hearted and helped the rabbit by suggesting a soothing balm to relieve his pain.
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Some say that the rabbit may actually have been a god in disguise. In the end Okuninushi reached the palace and it turned out that he was the brother who the princess chose to marry. He himself was later to be worshipped as a god throughout Japan.
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You can read the full story from The Japanese Fairy Book here: https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Japanese_Fairy_Book/The_White_Hare_And_The_Crocodiles
These illustrations are also from The Japanese Fairy Book.

See the next tweet for art credits for the rest of this thread.
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Art credits:
1 & 2: Illustrations from 'Japanese Fairy Tale Series - Hare of Inaba'
3: 'The Hare of Inaba & Onamuchi-no-kami at Hakuto Shrine in Tottori' via Wikipedia
5: 'Okuninushi no Mikoto, the White Hare of Inaba, and the Crocodiles' - Katsushika Hokusai.
#ukiyoe #art #Japan