JAPANESE

Moonrise (The moon is rising above the mountain.)

Japanese pampas grass and dumplings (Traditional decorations and offerings.)

Tanuki

Tanuki's drum-beating

Tanukis viewing the moon (beating their own bellies as drums)

Tanukis with a full moon

Rabbits making rice cake (pounding rice in a pestle and mortar)

Moon viewing

There is an old custom of celebrating the beautiful moon in the middle of September (on 15th August by the lunar calender). Japanese pampas grass is arranged in a vase, and dumplings are offered to the moon. The dumpling is shaped like the moon.
 

Tanuki

Or a raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides).
The Tanuki is not a racoon. Most of them live in Japan, Korea and China.
 

Tanuki's drum-beating

Drum-beating by a raccoon dog.
Japanese people say that they beat their own bellies as drums on a moonlight night.
 

The rabbit in the moon

People see some images in the craters of the full moon. In the US, people see "the man in the moon". But Japanese see a rabbit pounding rice in the moon.
 

Rice-cake making

Or pounding steamed glutinous rice into paste to make rice cake, with wooden pestles in a large wooden bowl (mortar).

Tops made by Masaaki Hiroi ,  Shuuichi Umeki.   Photos by Eiji Ohashi.

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Eiji Ohashi <eohashi@kikimimi.ne.jp>