Tsubaki Anna (b. 1970)
Get–Rabbit on the Moon
Japan, 2007
Digital print; ink and color on paper
Copyright: Tsubaki Anna
Loan from the artist
(L2014-53.03)

East Asian folklore described the amorphous shape within a full moon as a Moon Rabbit (Ch: yuètù; Jpn: tsuki [no] usagi ) that concocted an elixir of immortality through the use of a large mortar and pestle. Contemporary versions of this story, while still popular, claim instead that the rabbit is pounding rice cakes. Tsubaki comically conflates the legend of the Moon Rabbit with a far more worldly reference to American pop culture: the Playboy Bunny. The artist has published her work numerous times in the Japanese magazine Weekly Playboy (Shūkan Pureibōi ).