bunnies in Japan

Circa 1870-1880:

There were pig fanciers. Pigs commanded high prices. The tiny creatures known as Nanking mice also enjoyed a vogue. But the rabbit vogue was more durable and more intense, a rage of a vogue indeed. Though it spread all over the country, its beginnings were in Tokyo, with two foreigners, an Englishman and a American, who, situated in the Tsukiji foreign settlement, offered rabbits for sale. They also offered to make plain to the ignorant exactly what a rabbit conoisseur looked for in a particularly desirable beast. The rabbits were to be petted and admired, as dogs and cats are, and not eaten. A society of rabbit fanciers was formed. Rabbits with the right points brought huge prices, far greater, by weight, than those for pigs. Large floppy ears were much esteemed, as was the sarasa, or calico coat. A person in Shitaya was fined and jailed for staining a white rabbit with persimmon juice.

- Edward Seidensticker, LOW CITY, HIGH CITY: Tokyo from Edo to the Earthquake: how the shogun's ancient capital became a great modern city, 1867-1923 (1983)