Jade Rabbit's Mortar
The mortar and pestle with which the Jade Rabbit pounds the elixir of immortality is a fixed image in the Chinese moon, the rabbit standing beside the cassia tree on the lunar surface as the companion of the goddess Chang'e. In the Moon Rabbit folklore, the rabbit first earned its place when it offered itself as food to a disguised deity, who spared it and set it on the moon to grind the herbs of immortality, and the same moon-rabbit motif recurs across East Asian lore. In Korea the rabbit is said to pound the ingredients of the rice cake tteok, while in Japan it pounds mochi, and in Vietnam i