JOK Notebook

A Rabbit Crossed with a Horse

What do you think you get if you combine a rabbit with a horse?! The answer is in this photo.

Photo Credit: Eve Kushner

Part of a sculpture installation in Bologna, Italy, in July 2011. It may look like the donkey is being stabbed, but he's actually okay!

You get a donkey:

兎馬 (うさぎうま: donkey)    rabbit + horse

That is, a donkey looks like a horse with the ears of a rabbit!

The first kanji is non-Joyo. As for the yomi うさぎうま, the kun-kun combination makes this word much easier to remember and all the more charming, as it throws a spotlight on the rabbit-horse combination!

Comments

Corey's picture
This is an interesting combination of kanji. I've only heard of donkeys called as 驢馬 (ろば).
 
eve's picture
Thanks so much for supplying the kanji for ろば. First of all, 驢馬 is a really great horse sandwich (horse + something + horse). Second of all, the non-Joyo 驢 contains both a horse (馬) and a tiger (虎), plus a field (田) and a dish (皿). There must be one hell of a story behind all that! The horse was running through a field when he came upon a tiger with a dish ... and it all came to mean "donkey" (驢)!
 

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