The japanese name of this high-spirited monkey is Songoku. He is the Sun Wukong of Chinese
literature,the immortal monkey who accompanied the priest Tripitaka on his hourney from China
to India in the seventh century to collect Buddhist scriptures. His story is given in the
Chinese novel Xi you ji,"Journey to the West."
Songoku achieved imortality by breaking into
the garden of Heaven and eating the peaches of longevity.Once Monkey had joined their ranks,
the deiries had no idea what to do with him.Monkey could make the staff grow large or small at
will-it was his favorite weapon, with which he subdued demons and monsters on the journey to India.
The staff and his robes with their gold kining were gifts that Monkey extracted by threats from the
Dragon King of the Sea.Japanese make out the shape of a rabbit in the moon's dark markings.Known as
the Jade Rabbit,the Rabbit in the Moon appears as Monkey's companion here.A whiterabbit was associated
with the moon very early in Japanese folklore.
Tells of the white rabbit who loses and regains his skin.
The analogy relates to the waning and waxing of the moon,itself an analogy for death and rebirth.
Here, Monkey is probably simply playing with the rabbit that lives in the moon,but an episode concerning
a whitr rabbit does occur in the "Journey to the West."At one point in the hourney,Monkey turns into a white
rabbit in order to lure a prince, who is on a hunting expedition, to a shrine,where he tells the prince about
an imminent threat to his life.
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