nenihaslefttheplanet-blog:

ninjangel:

Okay so, I’m sure we’ve all asked this at one time in our lives

“Why the hell is a freaking rabbit Dark’s wings?”

WELL I’LL FUCKING TELL YOU WHY

Back when Buddhism had a huge influence in Japanese society, there was prohibition on eating meat…specifically if it came from a 4-legged animal.  Things like birds were okay.

But the Japanese really wanted to eat rabbits.  So they came up with this explanation that the big ears on rabbits were their wings, and as such rabbits were birds, and okay to eat.  That has survived in the counting system; while most (small) animals tend to be referred to using the counter “hiki”, birds and rabbits alike use the counter wa.

Wa = 羽

YOU KNOW, THE KANJI THAT MEANS FEATHER.

AND WITH FUCKING USES HIS EARS TO FLY

I’M SO DONE

*Takes notes on this for University*

Ninjangel, if it calms you down, us Europeans did something very simmilar! 😀

Catholic monks were permitted from eating meat other than fish during certain times on the year. But they really, really wanted to eat beaver…

…You can probably guess it already. Same story, different animal, really. They simply declared the beaver a fish. X’D