Oolong (July 28th, 1994 – January 7th, 2003) (named after the oolong variety of tea) was the name of a rabbit owned by photographer Hironori Akutagawa, of Hokkaido, Japan. This domestic rabbit has become a well known Internet phenomenon since 2001 through Akutagawa’s own home site. The site, created for rabbit lovers in Japan, featured “photo journeys” of the domestic rabbit travelling with his master through the house, yard, and other areas of interest. It reached public awareness in 2001 through Syberpunk.com, a site which focused on odd events in Japanese culture.
The reason for Oolong’s large fanbase on the Internet is the fact that Akutagawa had trained the rabbit to balance objects on his head, an art Hironori called “Head Performance”. The first object balanced on Oolong’s head was a 35mm film canister on 25 May 1999. Soon, the rabbit had moved on to balance multiple things on his head, including tea cups, bread, fruit, pancakes (actually dorayaki), and even a rabbit skull. Although most people found the pictures to be cute (especially those in which food was balanced), there were some complaints made by viewers who believed the practice to be cruel to animals. In a message to website viewers, Akutagawa wrote “Some visitors have written me e-mails, accusing me of being cruel to my rabbit and that I am abusing my pet. This was never my intention when I included numerous links to photographs, showing Oolong’s unique ability to hold objects on his head. This is not a site to mock rabbits, or demonstrate animal abuse. I’m sure you understand it if you see whole my site [sic].”
The head performance is actually a result of the domestic rabbit’s natural tendency to cuddle with each other, other animals (like housecats) and their owners by submissively putting their heads underneath the others’ chin. They seem to find the contact and light weight on their foreheads comforting. Any training involved would be minimal.
The best known of Oolong’s photographs was one that was widely used as an image macro. Featuring Oolong balancing a dorayaki on his head, it had the tagline “I have no idea what you’re talking about… so here’s a bunny with a pancake on its head.”
Throughout the rabbit’s lifetime, the photographer continued to document his journeys through natural and not-so-natural environments as well as take hundreds of pictures of the rabbit balancing objects. Oolong has been noticed by the media, including the New York Times, and has become a widespread Internet meme.
Oolong died on January 7, 2003. Akutagawa took photographs of the rabbit’s last moments alive and has included it in his website.
Akutagawa now owns a new rabbit by the name of Yuebing, which he hopes to raise in a way similar to Oolong.
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