平安時代の宮中では観月の宴に月見船を浮かべ詩歌を講じていました。日本人は真ん丸な月、欠けた月、細い月にもそれぞれに幻想的な名前をつけ、月を愛でてきたのです。よく見ると、餅でなくかまぼこをついているうさぎがいます。

In the Heian era (the 9-12th centuries), royal people held banquets and enjoyed seeing the moon together on small boats, on a peaceful stream, exchanging poems. The Japanese gave fantastic names to the moon, according to its shapes: a perfect circle, a partly eclipsed one and a crescent, and have admired its beauty.