Dragon Ball’s White Rabbit of the Moon
Happy Easter, Dragon Ball Fans. To celebrate this day I’ve decided to dedicate a blog post to our favorite talking bunny, Boss Rabbit.
Who is Boss Rabbit? Don’t remember him? Well that’s not surprising considering he’s only in a single issue and episode. But even if you do, I doubt you know his full story.
In this article you’ll learn about Boss Rabbit’s origins in Dragon Ball as well as his roots in Japanese, Chinese and Indian legends as the white rabbit of the moon. Yes, it goes that far back!
Boss Rabbit’s depiction in Dragon Ball is simple and comical, but Akira Toriyama manages to connect him to an ancient source at the very end.
You may have been confused by this reference since it was intended for a Japanese audience. Today you’ll finally learn what it’s all about.
Follow me as we dive into the rabbit hole and see how far down it goes.
Carrot Changing Rabbit Magic!
We’ll begin this topic by talking about Boss Rabbit’s one and only appearance in Dragon Ball.
Boss Rabbit premiered in Chapter 17 of the Dragon Ball manga, titled “Boss Rabbit’s Special Technique,” and episode 9 of the Dragon Ball anime, titled “Usagi Oyabun no Tokui Waza, うさぎオヤブンの得意技; English: Boss Rabbit’s Magic Touch,” on April 23, 1986.
His original name in Japanese is “usagi ninjin-ka” (兎人参化). This literally translates to “Rabbit Man Carrot Change,” or more accurately translated as “Rabbit who turns people into carrots.”
Since this is a hard term to translate, his name has appeared in different ways. In the Viz published manga he’s called “To, The Carrotter,” while in the FUNimation anime dub he’s called “Monster Carrot.” Fan translations have called him “The Carrotizer,” “The Carrotizer Bunny,” or simply “Boss Rabbit,” which I find the easiest to understand, even though it is not the most telling of his magic ability.
He’s called Boss Rabbit because he is the leader of the Rabbit Gang (Japanese: usagi dan, ウサギ団), a group of mobster-like criminals who have controlled a village near the Diablo Desert with fear. But it’s primarily because he’s a giant white rabbit that talks!
Why are the villagers so afraid of him? Because Boss Rabbit has the ability to turn people into carrots with his touch! He’s like the Greek legend of King Midas who turned objects into gold, but in this case, it’s into vegetables.
Only in this case it’s much worse, because after they’ve become a carrot he proceeds to EAT them. He does this because he’s evil, and he’s a rabbit, and evil rabbits eat carrot-people. That’s just what they do.
He has two gang members who walk around the town like they own the place. Bulma, Goku and Oolong happen to be in town. The two thugs see Bulma dressed in a rabbit costume (for altogether different reasons) and proceed to give Goku and the others a hard time, so Goku defends himself the only way he knows how.
The gang members retreat in pain and summon their boss to the scene.
Boss Rabbit drives up in a rabbit car, and gets out of the car wearing sun glasses.
The talking rabbit is walking on two feet and is wearing sun glasses, traditional Chinese clothing with the kanji of 兎 on it. This character in Japanese is pronounced “usagi” (うさぎ) (or “to”) and means “rabbit.”
Toriyama often applies symbols to the characters’ clothing in Dragon Ball, and in many cases they have deeper meanings, but in this case it just means rabbit.
Boss Rabbit offers his hand to Bulma as a feigned act of kindness. She slaps it away in refusal. He starts laughing, and a moment later Bulma is magically turned into a carrot.
Goku is shocked. He fights against Boss Rabbit and uses the Nyoi-bo to make sure he doesn’t get touched.
Boss Rabbit is losing the fight so he holds the Bulma carrot hostage and says that if Goku fights back, he’ll eat her.
Goku has no choice but to endure the painful blows of Boss Carrot’s gang.
Seeing that Goku needs help, Yamcha and Puar (who were following our hero’s) steal the carrot away from Boss Rabbit, who is then defeated by Goku.
Goku forces Boss Rabbit to transform Bulma back into a person.
What happens next is straight out of a Japanese legend.
Boss Rabbit goes to the Moon
Goku ties up Boss Carrot and his defeated gang members. He then decides to take the gang as far away from the village as possible.
How, exactly?
By taking Nyoi-bo out, sticking it in the ground, and telling it to grow!
The magical staff that Goku carries (the Nyoi-bo) is based on the As You Wish Staff of Sun Wukong from Journey to the West (Chinese: Ruyi Jingu Bang, 如意金箍棒), and it has the power to change shape according to the users mind intent. The staff can become as small as a needle, or “As tall as Heaven.”
Sun Wukong (Son Goku) and the white Moon Rabbit (Jade Rabbit)
In this case, Goku grabs onto the tied up villains and rises into the air along with the staff. Higher, higher, and ever higher, until he reaches the moon!
There, Boss Rabbit and his two gang members endure punishment for their crimes, as they are seen pounding mochi cakes using a hammer.
Huh? What’s going on?
Okay, a couple things.
First, oddly enough, they can all breath in space, including Goku who brought them up there. This is because Akira Toriyama was more of a gag manga author at this time of his career, coming on the heels of Dr. Slump. He preferred to write more humorous story lines, interspersed with both traditional and pop culture, so even though they can breathe in space and it doesn’t make any sense, it’s funny and tells a better story.
But why are they pounding mochi cakes?
Quickly, in case you don’t know, mochi (餅) is a sweet rice cake in Japan eaten for dessert. In Korean it’s called Tteok (떡), and they’re made from glutinous rice flour. It can be cooked in different ways, including by being pounded with mallets inside a big pot.
The reason Goku took them to the moon is because Toriyama wrote his comic for a Japanese audience, and he was referencing an ancient Japanese legend, called The Rabbit on the Moon.
In western countries the craters on the moon are described as “The Man in the Moon,” as they look like a face. But in Japan, the craters are described as a rabbit standing above a mortar or pot, pounding into the pot with a hammer or pestle to make sweet rice cakes known as mochi.
As depicted here:
But how did a rabbit get on the moon?
Now that is a far more interesting tale.
The Rabbit on the Moon Legend
Like many aspects of Japanese culture, the Rabbit on the Moon legend comes from China. But as you’ll see, the Chinese legend goes even further back to ancient India and Buddhism.
All of the following legends show that our ancestors, no matter where they lived on earth, all looked up to the stars and moon in an attempt to find meaning.
Meaning for our lives and our place in the universe.
Let’s begin the telling of this legend in India, thousands of years ago, and then chronologically and geographically work our way toward modern Japan.
The Jataka White Rabbit
India is the most likely source of origin for the rabbit on the moon legend.
The Jataka, otherwise known as the “Previous Life Stories,” tell the tales of Buddha Shakyamuni’s 34 previous lives before being reborn as a human as Siddhartha Gautama and attaining enlightenment.
In story number 6, he is reborn as a white rabbit. Even though he’s an animal, this rabbit is so virtuous, beautiful, and good that the other animals treat him as a king and admire his wisdom. The three animals that became his closest students were an otter, jackal, and monkey.
One night, the rabbit instructed them that on the following evening there would be a full moon, and was a holy day (the Uposatha day of fasting), and that any beggars who needed aid should immediately be given food.
The rabbit realized later on that while his companions had a variety of ways to feed a human being, he had none. Only the bitter grass clippings that he ate each day. He immediately decided that if the opportunity arose, he would offer his own body as meat.
Hearing this thought, the god Shakra (aka Sakka, or Indra), the Lord of All Gods, decided to descend to earth and test the rabbit’s conviction. He appeared as a hungry beggar.
The otter brought fish. The jackal brought a lizard and a stolen pot of milk. The monkey brought mangoes.
But the rabbit had nothing to offer. So with the help of the other animals and the man he built a fire. As soon as the fire was blazing he jumped on top of it.
Shakra was greatly moved. He quickly reached into the fire, pulled out the unscathed rabbit and held it above his head, displaying him before all the gods in his mighty glory.
To honor the rabbits selfless sacrifice, Shakra placed the image of the rabbit on the top of his palace, and most importantly to this story, carved the rabbits image onto the moon.
This is where the “rabbit on the moon” idea comes from. The rabbit was engraved on the moon so that people across the world would forever have a symbol of piety, righteousness and sacrifice to look up to.
The rabbit had nothing to offer but himself, and this was the greatest gift of all.
Chang’e and the White Rabbit
The Buddhism of India was exported into China where it took root and assimilated with the existing culture. Many of the Buddhist legends became interwoven with existing Chinese beliefs and folk tales, such as those from Daoism.
One such Daoist story is about a young woman named Chang’e (嫦娥). She is the Moon Goddess and the Chinese equivalent of “The Man in the Moon.”
The quick version of the story is that Chang’e and her husband were both immortals. Through an altercation with the Jade Emperor, Lord of Heaven, they were banished down to the earth to live as mortals.
In an attempt to seek their immortality once again, her husband Houyi sought the way back and was fortunate to meet the Queen Mother of the West, a Daoist deity. Seeing his pious nature, The Queen Mother gave Houyi a magic pill of immortality, but warned him that they each only need to eat one half of the pill.
Unfortunately Chang’e was too curious and swallowed the entire pill herself. She rose upward into the sky as her husband looked onward, unable to do anything but cry. She kept rising up, and up, until she landed back on the moon.
Luckily she wasn’t alone! A “Jade Rabbit” lived there as well, and he had the job of constantly making immortality elixirs in his pot.
Throughout Chinese history the “moon rabbit,” as inherited from the Indian legend of Buddha Shakyamuni’s sacrifice, had been called many names, such as Jade Rabbit (玉兎) or Gold Rabbit (金兎). The Jade Rabbit refers to Daoism and immortality, while I believe the Gold Rabbit most likely refers to Buddhism and enlightenment. Here you can see the interwoven cultures.
The white rabbit (aka Jade Rabbit) is connected to the Dao because he was making an immortality elixir. Long life and eventual immortality was one of the goals of Daoist practitioners, who regarded Jade as the highest material substance (as personified by the Jade Emperor). They were known for collecting herbs or special ingredients and mixing them together in a pot in an attempt to create immortality pills.
This image is of an 18th century Qing Emperor’s robe. The white rabbit is on the Emperor’s Robe because it was considered a Daoist symbol of long life. The Dragon represents the Emperor and “The Will of Heaven.”
The Chang’e legend was part of traditional folklore that became very popular in the Tang Dynasty (609 – 907 AD). On each Mid-Autumn day, the full moon of the 8th lunar month, people throughout China set up altars and put their pastries and cakes on the altar to be blessed by Chang’e. When they eat the pastries and cakes, they become beautiful.
This is called the Moon Festival, Mooncake Festival or Mid-Autumn Festival, and there is an accompanying parade at night where people carry lanterns with rabbits on them.
In literary culture Chang’e is also found in Journey to the West, the inspiration for Dragon Ball. Here, she is banished from Heaven by the Jade Emperor just like Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie, but through the process of redemption is allowed to make her way back up to Heaven and eventually to the moon.
Likewise, the famous Tang Dynasty poet, Li Bai, wrote of this rabbit in his poem, “The Old Dust,” saying, “The rabbit in the moon pounds the medicine in vain.”
These Indian and Chinese legends became intermingled and were then passed on to Japan.
The Japanese White Rabbit
Japanese culture is a mix of imported Chinese, Korean and native beliefs with its own unique flavors and disciplines.
A version of the Jataka stories from India can be found in the Japanese anthology, Konjaku Monogatarishu (今昔物語集), a classic source of many Japanese legends and both Buddhist and Shinto culture, written between 794 and 1185, a time of great trade with China.
It is retold here as a children’s story.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN9Y_pZ8P0A
Many of the legends in the Konjaku Monogatarishu feature animals that can think and talk like humans. They sometimes appear bipedal and anthromorphic, with morality and feelings, just like the animal characters in Dragon Ball, such as Boss Rabbit, Oolong and Puar.
In the Japanese version of the Chang’e story, when she makes it to the moon and sees the white rabbit, the rabbit is pounding rice in a mortar, not an elixir in a pot. The rabbit’s name is Tsukiyomi (月読), the same name as the moon god in Shinto and Japanese mythology.
This is because Tsukiyomi is said to have killed Ukemochi, the rice goddess. Tsukiyomi pounds rice in a pestle and mortar because he harvested the grains of rice from the moon and is turning them into cakes. The “mochi” desserts come from Ukemochi.
The same idea of a rabbit making mochi (instead of elixir) is found in the Korean version of the story, but I don’t know which one came first.
Today, just like in China and Korea, people in Japan celebrate the first day of autumn by eating mochi. The first day of Autumn is an equinox, and therefore a perfect “moon viewing day” in Japan. People look up at the moon and see the rabbit. The rabbit on the moon makes the mochi. Then they eat the mochi. Makes sense, right?
This was common folklore and culture that Japanese citizens grew up with, just like Easter in America. It’s a national holiday that is celebrated throughout the country.
For example, the Rabbit Song, or “Usagi,” as it’s known, is a children’s song that mentions the rabbit on the moon and the festival. This song is as common in Japan as “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” is in the United States.
Here are the lyrics:
The fifteenth night moon is not nearly enough.
Jump into the night and dance with the moon.
No time to sleep, the party is just starting!
Usagi usagi nani o mitehaneru?
juugoya no tsuki dake ja monotarinai
yoru ni tobidashite tsuki to odorou
nemurenai utage wa mada mada kore kara!”
The song is sung by young children throughout Japan, including Dragon Ball’s target audience, and they’re all familiar with the legend.
Toriyama References Traditional Culture
Toriyama wrote his comic for young Japanese boys, so he purposefully appealed to what they would be interested in during their youth. He took the legend of the rabbit on the moon and incorporated it into Dragon Ball.
This slice of Japanese culture is in the comic for seemingly no other reason than to be funny. And I’m not even sure why it takes up an entire episode and issue, as it isn’t integral to the story. It’s just something that happens along the way.
Japan only has a 2% Christian population, so there aren’t many people who celebrate Easter. The legend as depicted in Dragon Ball obviously has nothing to do with Easter, as I’ve thoroughly explained, but I thought it a fitting day to tell such a story to a primarily Western audience.
Toriyama fills in the blank of the Japanese version of the rabbit on the moon legend using Goku, Boss Rabbit and his Rabbit Gang. The rabbit made it up there because Goku took him up there!
He and his gang presumably would have stayed up there forever, but Master Roshi destroyed the moon with a Kamehameha while fighting against Goku during the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai later in the series.
Oops.
Did they die, as would be logical?
No, because in the book “Dragon Ball: Adventure Special,” (published December 1, 1987), Akira Toriyama explained that “They’re drifting through space.”
Toriyama was probably trying to be nice by not killing them off. But to me, drifting through space for the rest of your life is even worse than death and going to the afterlife.
Oh well.
In conclusion, the point I’m trying to make is that the entire reference to all of this ancient culture is depicted in 1 panel, of 1 page, in 1 issue of a comic. Yet it speaks volumes if you know the full history of what is depicted.
And now you do.
So the next time you see Boss Rabbit you’ll remember all of the ancient culture and the thousands of years of history that made his creation possible.
Resources
White Rabbit on Emperor’s Robe
Carrotizer Bunny on Dragon Ball Wikia
Japanese Children’s Story on YouTube
A French Article on Dragon Ball’s Moon
I know you won’t post this in your blog because you might be embarrassed, but I just have to tell you that I’m still consistently amazed at how you initiate and develop a concept into an article or story. Congrat’s, This is another terrific and successful effort. I really enjoyed reading it.
Thanks, Dad! That’s not embarrassing. It’s nice of you to say.
Very interesting! Who knew that one obscure character had such deep cultural roots
Yep! There are many characters in Dragon Ball that only appear for a brief time, yet have deep cultural roots. Many of the settings as well, such as the Diablo Desert and Frypan Mountain, which were taken from Journey to the West, inspired originally by the Tang Monk’s travels to India through the Taklamakan Desert.
Boss Rabbit is also a boss in the NES game "Dragon Power."? (I know the game had a lot of weird censorship and changes, like Goku’s haircut and his tail and some music)
You have to beat him up with the staff without letting him touch you. (or you turn into a carrot which means instant death) Later, Goku travels to the moon (forget why) where again Boss Rabbit is a boss, this time looking for revenge. (and the fight is tougher because there aren’t any hiding spaces unlike the first boss fight)
He’d make for an interesting Budokai character. (maybe a slow, weak gimmicky character who can die quickly and easily but can kill with one touch)
Oh yeah, I forgot about that game. I thought it was impossibly difficult and never even got that far. Fairly creative use of the character though.
You’re right, that would make for an interesting Budokai character. At least some type of boss. Maybe his ultimate super move could be to turn his opponents into a carrot and eat them! haha.
When using the character yourself I think they’d have to nerf his ability to just make it cause a lot of damage. The opponents get turned into carrots and get turned back, suffering damage as a result.
Maybe it could take damage after he nibbles the carrot, lol.
They’ve been going for more obscure characters in DB recently (Robot girl, the devil man) so maybe Boss Rabbit has a chance.
(Let me guess, Yamcha kicked your ass in the game, huh? That’s where most people call it quits. Might be interesting to do a feature on that game. Technically, it is the first exposure to the world of DB that America got, although it only gave them a poor taste of it.)
"Never kill off a good villain that isn’t already dead."
Toriyama prob. thought he might reuse him again.
Also, technically he wouldn’t float in space forever…. the force of the moon explosion would propel them in different directions. Until they landed somewhere and it broke the force. (due to no gravity in space) Eventually humanity (or an alien) would find them, but it could be a looong time.
So, which characters in the series have no basis in Mythology/folklore/culture? Are any of them entirely envisioned from nowhere or do they all have significant ties to culture and mythos?
I sat for a minute and tried to come up with some, and it was really hard! I could trace every major character back to a source.
Even Mr. Satan has a modern cultural connection. One that I detail in my second bonus chapter (still in progress).
The only major character I could think of without a cultural connection is his daughter, Videl. I believe she’s there to serve as the "human perspective" within the crazy extreme perspective of the Saiyans. For example, to ask Gohan how Ki works and then later bridge the gap between the supernormal powers of the Saiyans realm of living with the normal (non-believing) realm of human society.
Otherwise, they all have connections. Is there anybody in particular you’d like to know more about?
Now that you ask, I’d be interested in knowing Buu’s connection to culture (aside from being a Djinn) and perhaps also the RR/android connection to modern Japan. Especially since they are in final stages of their worker droids(I forget the company) which the Pyramid City designers hope to use to construct the first city on water – excluding Atlantis :P
As an Aside, I just Noticed that Videl is an anagram of Devil. I love the wordplay on every name in the series. It sufficiently brings smiles to my face.
You JUST noticed that? :) haha. It was decades ago, man!
Just kidding of course. Speaking of which, I think it’s interesting that they never mention Mister Satan’s wife. If I were Toriyama I would have named her Buscu, a humorous play on Succubus; female demon’s that steal the spirit of men through sexual intercourse.
Each of the things you asked about would make for a great blog post. I’ve never heard of Pyramid City that you’re talking about. I’ll have to look that up.
Quick reply to your question about Majin Buu, here’s something I wrote a while ago on Reddit’s r/dbz subforum that got a good response.
The question was, "Does anybody else think that Majin Buu was way too similar to Cell?" Here’s my answer:
"I thought it was a natural progression and evolution of Goku’s opponents. Each one had become increasingly powerful. Cell represented perfection of physical form, and Goku and Gohan defeated him. Form had been conquered, so now it was time for Goku to defeat the formless. Enter Majin Buu, a formless, shapeless being made of particles that can vary from being a gaseous entity to a rock hard humanoid.
For me, I always saw Majin Buu as an everlasting being, an immortal of shapeless, formless existence that can become anything and look like anyone. He regenerates his limbs just like Daoists of Chinese legends, can have his head cut off or his body completely destroyed, and he comes right back because it wasn’t destroyed at a small enough level. Even one molecule is enough for him to regenerate his entire body. The only way he can be stopped is with complete disintegration of the body at a microcosmic level.
Goku even went inside his body and entered the microcosmic realm. Daoists refer to the human body as a ‘small universe’ so I thought it was quite appropriate that they would enter Majin Buu’s body and rip out his subconscious selves in order to (accidentally) make him return to his true, original self, which is the ultimate goal of Daoism.
And in regards to the evolution of Goku’s enemies, it makes perfect sense that Goku would have to fight this being last. In order to become a Dao (an everlasting true being), he had to defeat a Dao. One was aligned with evil (although with pure beings of consciousness inside him) and one aligned with good (although with primal savage Saiyan consciousness inside him). Very fascinating duality of Yin and Yang. Majin Buu is inherently child like and so is Goku, but Majin Buu is pure crazy, and Goku is pure innocent. Both are primal warriors in different ways.
Goku’s conquering of Majin Buu via the Spirit Bomb (the collective energy of sentient beings and life forms), and then Buu’s reincarnation into Uub and eventually his discipleship under Goku, is equally fascinating."
That was simply awesome!
Speaking of which, I’ve always wondered what the heck Chaotzu is. (and what’s the deal with Ten’s 3rd eye)
Chaozu is a traditional Chinese vampire/mummy/zombie type monster, kind of like a ghoul. That’s why his skin is ghost white and he only has one hair on the top of his head.
You may have seen some old Chinese kung fu films with these creatures in them.
Tenshinhan’s third eye is a reference to Erlang Shen, the only character in Journey to the West who was able to defeat Sun Wukong (Son Goku). He used his third eye to see through Sun Wukong’s transformations and then capture him.
In addition, they’re both associated with birds. Erlang Shen’s is the red bird (Phoenix) and Tenshinhan’s is the white bird (Crane).
There’s more to it than that of course, and I go into detail in the book.
Oh, now that’s something I didn’t know! About Tien. I knew the deal with chaozu from my previous curiousity about him.
Does the original legend discuss the third eye as being a physical eye or does it treat it much as we treat the third eye concept now? How much has THAT concept changed over time? And, throughout the series, can you name a few instances where a character is shown to exhibit a power which in the real world would be attributed to the third eye?
Off-hand, I think the ability of warriors to follow breakneck speed fights, goku’s instant transmission (more about remote viewing than the actual translocation) and the ability to read another’s past may all be connected in some way but, I’m unsure as I have yet to open my third eye
The ability to see Ki at all is usually considered impossible without the third eye open. Of course that would make the comic rather boring, so Toriyama adds form and color to it, making it visible to everyone. However, there are times in the original Dragon Ball series where Tenshinhan is fighting in the tournament and is able to see the aura’s and power of Goku (and I think Piccolo) that others cannot see. I attribute that to his third eye.
I’m not sure off the top of my head what the legends said about a physical eye. They may have done so somewhere, but I don’t recall it. Usually it’s ephemeral. In fact, the Third Eye is called "Tian Mu" in Chinese, which means "Heavenly Eye" or "Celestial Eye," and refers to an eye that can see multiple levels of dimensions, including into the "heavens."
They are all connected. :) I don’t want to tell you what to believe of course, but maybe you can read Zhuan Falun lecture 2 online for free. Master Li goes into great detail on the subject of the third eye.
Thank you for this advice! What I believe is that to understand the universe, we must study every source of information we can grasp. I greatly appreciate you sharing this lecture with me!
Why does Chaotzu never age though? Even after decades, he still looks like a little boy doll. Is he really a human in DB, or just a Chinese monster that looks human-like? (and what’s up with his "wife" anyway?)
I honestly don’t know the answers to those questions.
I’d have to go back and watch that Dragon Ball movie again to get a better idea of the wife thing. If I remember correctly it was a doll itself, wasn’t it?
I think only some old Toriyama interviews could explain what the heck Chaotzu is supposed to be, lol. C. still confuses me to no end after all these years, heh, and the "Chinese monster" connection doesn’t make him much less confusing.