Week 13

Discussion

About Snakes

Jūnishi

The Chinese and Japanese zodiac is divided into 12 units, each represented by animals. Instead of being inspired by prominent stellar constellations as in the Western zodiac, the east Asian zodiac was inspired by the planet Jupiter which takes 12 Earth years to orbit the sun. By the time an Earth year has past, Jupiter has moved on, requiring the Earth another month to catch up. After 12 years, the two planets are back in roughly their original positions. Thus, the number 12 took on religious significance.

Folklore says that when the Gods decided that animals would represent each unit of the zodiac, they invited all animals to compete in a race to see which of them would be so honored. The animals that arrived at a certain destination would be accepted in the order they came. Rat was the first to arrive. He did so partly by tricking Cat into believing the race was for a different day and riding on the back of Ox and then jumping off at the last moment. That is why Cat is not in the Chinese and Japanese zodiac. After Rat, there are Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Wild Boar.

The Vietnamese zodiac is similar, but it has Cat instead of Rabbit and Buffalo instead of Ox.

Note that many Google searches provide an AI Overview at the top of pages with search results. AI software creates the overview by extracting contents from some of the articles it finds. It makes mistakes. For example, one AI Overview reported that Cat was part of the Chinese/Japanese zodiac. That is not true.

The Japanese zodiac is called jūnishi.

Next year, 2025, is the Year of the Snake. Like the rest of the animals, it repeats every 12 years. Note that there are two words for snake in Japanese. The common word is hebi, but when used in the context of jūnishi, the word for snake is mi. The year of the snake is midoshi.

There are also 5 substances associated with jūnishi years; wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. The 12 jūnishi units and 5 substances combined make a 60 year cycle. Wood is associated with the Year of the Snake in 2025, making it the Year of the Wood Snake.

As with the Western zodiac, jūnishi signs imply personality characteristics. People born in the year of the snake are said to be perceptive and intuitive. They see patterns that others miss, making them excellent problem solvers. People trust them and seek their advice. They value deep connections, choosing their close ones carefully. People born in the Year of the Wood Snake are perfectionists who are afraid of making mistakes.

Daily Time Keeping

Jūnishi animals were also involved in daily timekeeping before Japan adapted the Western clock. The day was divided into 12 units; 6 equal daytime units and 6 equal nighttime units. Because the length of days and nights vary with the seasons, the units also varied in length throughout the year. Each unit was associated with a jūnishi animal. The snake was associated with the third daytime unit, placing its time just before noon.

The Year of the Snake

Mi, the jūnishi snake, can be any kind of snake. It isn't associated with any particular species.

One of the new year activities in Japan is a visit to a Shinto shrine to purchase an ema, a small wooden plaque. The plaque usually has a picture on one side. The other side is blank. One writes a wish on the blank side, hangs the plaque up in the shrine, and prays for the wish to be fulfilled.

The pictures can be anything, but popular choices are ones that depict the jūnishi animal being celebrated that year. I happen to have one with a snake.

've seen other emas that have white snakes, too. Based on that, I decided that this week's painting subject would be the Japanese rat snake (Elaphe climacophora).

The reason for this choice is that there is an albino variety of the Japanese rat snake.

Albinos are especially numerous in Japan's Iwakuni provence, giving them the common name of Iwakuni rat snake or shirohebi (white snake). They have been declared one of Japan's "National Monuments."

Japanese rat snakes range from over 3 feet to 6.5 feet in length and are up to 2 inches in diameter. They are boa constrictors (i.e., they are not venomous) and eat small mammals, birds, and frogs. They can climb trees and are known to raid bird's nests.

Coreopsis tinctoria

My painting composition this week includes a flower that is related to asters. It has several common names including plains coreopsis, garden tickseed, golden tickseed, and calliopsis. Though native to North America, C. tinctoria is cultivated in China and Japan. Its Japanese name is janome sō. Janome means snake eye in Japanese. That is the reason that I included it in my snake demonstration painting.

Janome sō is an annual that grows 12 to 40 inches in height.

The Zuni people used the blossoms to make a hot drink, and the centers of blossoms to make a mahogany red dye for yarn.

Artwork

Kitagawa Utamaro (1753 – 1806)

Some have called Utamaro the Toulouse-Lautrec of Japan because many of his ukiyo-e prints depicted behind the scenes images of beauties of the demimonde. He was arrested in 1804 for making illegal prints of one of Japan's great military leaders and kept shackled for 50 days. He died two years later, a broken man. Though known for his beauties, Utamaro also illustrated nature studies, especially books of insects. The image below appeared in a picture book titled Selected Insects with Crazy Poems (1788).

Katsushika Hokusai (1760 – 1849)

Hokusai is world famous for his landscape prints; especially his Great Wave Off Kanagawa. He painted a great many other subjects, too. His Snake and Mellons below (1809) is one of them.

Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798 – 1861)

Kuniyoshi was one of the Edo Period's (1603 – 1868) last great ukiyo-e masters. He was especially noted for the wide range of subjects he painted; from bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful people), to landscapes, to kabuki prints, to cats. He was also noted for painting mythical monsters. The painting below is one of a series titled One Hundred and Eight Heroes from Tales of the Water Margin (1830 – 1832).

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