This site has, in the upper right, a picture of a ceramic sculpture of some bunnies holding up a flower. I have similar piece and was wondering why the bunnies are holding up the flower, what the meaning of the bunnies are, what the flower is, and where is this from and what was it used for.
Note: My sculpture cost $5 in a second hand store and has no top part and has chipped flower petals and the bunnies look cruder, so I have no doubt mine is worth no more than $5 and just want to know the story behind it.
As to the answer, nobody really knows, but it’s darned interesting.
There’s a symmetrical icon of three hares that is associated with Buddhist art (often associated with a lotus, as here and here,) and has also frequently appeared in Egyptian, Christian, and Islamic art, going way back. Here’s an article from last year.
Seeing as there are three hares on the base, and the sculpture represents a lotus, I think it’s reasonable to assume that it’s inspired by this ancient design.
This page offers a very similarly designed piece and says it’s “styled after a Koryo Dynasty incense burner from the 12th century.” No real clue as to the iconography behind the bunnies though.
Fertility symbol? Reference to the rabbit in the moon? Part of a set of twelve, each with a different zodiac animal?
I searched a bit to find more information, but didn’t find anything. The above link as incense burner makes sense structurally,though. I’ll add a bit from my knowledge, can’t find sites for this in particular, though.
Rabbits, in Asian motifs, represent peacefulness, so would make sense that they are the base of the structure. The lotus flower represents spiritual unfolding. Lotuses are rooted in the muck of the pond, but flower at the meeting of water and air/light, so symbolize the mind reaching full flower of enlightenment above the basic muck of existence.
The ball structure at the top reminds me of the Tibetan Eternal Knot, representing the interweaving of all life. Structurally, it would serve as an incense burner, and makes sense representationally, too. Incense is burned as a sacrament, an offering to mediate earthly and divine realms.
So, peaceful stable fertile rabbits holding up the process of enlightenment, topped by a means of actualizing, or at least, asking for that.
Cheap knockoff or not, Lee, that’s five bucks well spent.
Well, it’s a Korean website; so I asked my Korean wife! She looked at it and said, “I dunno.” :smack:
So I have just invented my own theory: if you look at a map of Korea (both north and south), it looks kinda like a bunny sitting up… so the bunnies represent Korea holding up the world!
While searching for the meanings of the symbols, one surprising bit of info appeared:
It is interesting that the rabbit seems to crop up in Asia and also in Mesoamerica, in those places it always appears related to the moon, but between Europe and Asia it seems that tree rabbits in a circle (and it looks like there are 3 rabbits in the base of that sculpture) are a surprisingly common symbol:
The hare or rabbit is obviously a fertility symbol, but it is also a symbol of longevity in the East. In Asian folklore he grinds the ingredients of the elixir of longevity on the moon.
It is interesting to see most of the same items in a different piece of art: from an exhibition in the Office of the President of Taiwan here is a hare with lotus motifs and the explanation of the symbols:
I was wondering about the ball, so if **Tenzin ** is correct, that is the Tibetan Eternal Knot representing the interweaving of all life.
So, I think the piece on the picture is a sculpture designed to ask for good fortune, long life and the reaching of our full potential.
Not silly at all. A silly question would be, is there a connection to killer rabbits? (“Beware, Young Grasshopper, of that rabbit over there, guarding over the Golden Lotus. He was trained at the Shaolin Temple of Killer Rabbittry, and he’s got the most awful, nasty, gnashing teeth… I’m telling you, that rabbit’s dynamite!” "Master, I will pluck that Lotus and return in only a moment. No harmless bunny rabbit can stand in my way… [Ghastly fighting and dying sounds ensue.])
