Celebrating Autumn: Moon Viewing, Tsukimi Burgers, and Rabbits Pounding Mochi

Temperatures have finally started to fall in Japan, though having said that I am still yet to use the heater at home and the window remains open as I write this. The heat this year has indeed been unprecedented, with summer temperatures the joint hottest on record. Moreover, we are still waiting for Mount Fuji's first snowcap - which on average appears around October 2nd - making it the latest since records began 130 years ago. The snowcap is one seasonal marker in a country where people are acutely aware of nature and appreciate the changing of the seasons. Probably the clearest seasonal marker this time of year is the moon.

Full moon over Tsuda

In autumn, Japanese enjoy Tsukimi (月見), literally "moon-viewing", a celebration of the full moon (jyūgoya =十五夜) - also known as the harvest moon (chūshū no meigetsu=中秋の名月) - which traditionally falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month​ in the old calendar (September 17th this year - though the actual full moon fell on the 18th). As I have written before, various seasonal foods and decorations feature during the festivities. But while foods such as rice dumplings (dango), sweet potatoes (satsuma-imo), and chestnuts (kuri) traditionally feature, Tsukimi burgers have become something of a new tradition in recent years.

MacDonald's Tsukimi burger has been available as a limited autumn item since 1991. The story was that the McDonald's team developed a burger with an egg and intended to call it simply "bacon cheese and egg burger" but the president stepped in and insisted it be called the Tsukimi burger, much to the marketing teams' horror. However, the name struck a chord with consumers and today every burger shop in Japan - including KFC and Mos Burger - has their own variation, and even pizza and beef-bowl (gyūdon) chains have jumped on the bandwagon. This year's lineup, which is only available from September 4th to mid-October, can be seen here (short CM here). One new item on the menu this year is the Custard Pudding Flavour Tsukimi McShake with "golden hues to represent the moon" - which begs the question, what colour do the Japanese actually see the moon?

©copyright McDONALD’S (日本マクドナルド株式会社)(Link)

Whereas in the UK the moon is typically painted silver, blue, or white, in Japanese children's drawings the moon is often painted in yellow or orange, just like the egg yolk in the Tsukimi burger. The image of the moon as yellow or orange nicely illustrates how culture can have an influence on colour perception (previous blog discussion here). Admittedly the moon does tend to look orange or amber (just like the sun appears redder) when rising or setting, so maybe this has become the dominant image for the Japanese (and, yes, Japanese kids paint the sun red not yellow!).

To investigate more on how the moon is perceived in Japan, I visited The Museum of the Imperial Collections, Sannomaru Shozokan (皇居三の丸尚蔵館) in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo to check out their exhibition entitled Nature’s Splendor: Scenes of the Moon and Water (水の情景・月の風景), an exhibition "exploring the beauty of the natural world through the lens of two of its most admired subjects." Interestingly, the moon was coloured white in all the exhibits, which suggests the perception of it as yellow is either a modern invention or just for children. The highlight of the exhibition - also featured on the poster - is undoubtedly the set of three hanging scrolls called Snow, Moon, and Flowers (雪月花）depicting elegantly dressed Heian ladies admiring the most beautiful features of the season: snow in winter, the moon in autumn, and cherry blossoms in spring. The piece, completed in 1937 by Shoen Uemura, apparently took 21 years to complete.

As a final aside, eagle-eyed readers may have noticed rabbits featuring on the McDonald's Tsukimi milk shake; at the exhibition too, there was a vase, apparently created for Emperor Taisho's enthronement in 1915, featuring a circle representing the moon and a rabbit holding a pestle. Why? Well, rabbits are a common motif to symbolise the moon in Japan because when Japanese see the moon, they see two rabbits pounding rice-cakes (mochi)! Coincidentally, the word mochi-zuki (望月) means both full moon and also sounds like the phrase for pounding mochi, mochi-tsuki (餅つき), a Japanese tradition to greet the new year. For this reason, rabbits - which are considered creatures that ward off evil - and mochi feature a lot during Tsukimi season festivities. Can you make out the shapes of the rabbits when you look up at the moon? Let me know in the COMMENTS!