This story begins with a rabbit, a very white rabbit, who lived on a little island called Oki. He loved hopping around, but one day, he looked across the sparkly blue sea. "Oh," he thought, "I wish I could go to the big land of Inaba!" But how could a little rabbit cross the big, wide sea?

Then, he saw some sharks swimming by. "Aha!" thought the rabbit. He had a plan, a very clever, but also a little bit cheeky, plan.

He hopped to the edge of the water. "Hello, Mr. Sharks!" he called out. "I wonder, are there more rabbits on my island, or more sharks in your sea?"
The sharks, who weren't always the brightest, grumbled, "Of course, there are more of us!"
"Well," said the rabbit, "how about you line up all the way to Inaba, and I'll hop on your backs and count you? Then we'll know for sure!"

The sharks thought this was a fine idea. So, they made a long, bumpy bridge with their backs, all the way to the land of Inaba.
The white rabbit hopped, skipped, and jumped from one shark's back to another. "One, two, three..." he counted.
He was almost at the shore of Inaba. He was so excited! But then, he got a bit too proud. Just as he was about to jump onto the last shark, he giggled, "You silly sharks! I tricked you! I just wanted a ride!"

Oh dear. The last shark was very angry. SNAP! It bit the rabbit and pulled off all his fluffy white fur!
The poor rabbit, now without any fur, scrambled onto the beach. "Ouch, ouch, ouch!" he cried. The sun burned his skin, and the salty air stung him. He was so sad and sore.

Soon, a big group of brothers, eighty of them, came walking along the beach. They were all gods, and they were on their way to see a beautiful princess.
They saw the poor, furless rabbit crying. "What's wrong with you?" one of them asked, not very kindly.
The rabbit sniffled and told them his story. The brothers snickered. "Oh, that's easy to fix," one said. "Go wash in the salty seawater, and then dry yourself in the wind."

The rabbit, desperate for help, did as they said. He splashed in the salty sea. OUCH! It stung even more! Then he sat in the wind. OOOOH! His skin cracked and hurt terribly. The mean brothers had made things much, much worse. They just laughed and walked on, leaving the rabbit in even more pain.

A little while later, another young man came along. He was the youngest brother of the eighty gods, and his name was Ōkuninushi. He was carrying all their heavy bags, and he looked much kinder.
He saw the rabbit crying. "Oh, you poor thing!" he said gently. "What happened?"
The rabbit, through his tears, told his story again. Ōkuninushi listened patiently.
"Those brothers gave you terrible advice," he said. "Here's what you should do. First, go wash carefully in fresh water from the river. Then, find some soft cattail pollen – you know, the fluffy yellow stuff from the plants by the water – and roll in it. It will make a soft new coat for you."

The rabbit trusted Ōkuninushi's kind voice. He hopped to the river and washed away the salt. Ah, that felt better! Then he found the cattail plants and rolled in the soft, yellow pollen. It stuck to his skin like a gentle, fluffy blanket.
Soon, his pain was gone, and he felt much better. He even started to grow a new coat of soft, white fur.

The rabbit was so grateful. "Thank you, thank you, kind Ōkuninushi!" he said. "Because you were so good to me, I know something wonderful will happen to you. You, not your mean brothers, will win the heart of the beautiful princess!"
And the little white rabbit, feeling much happier and wiser, hopped off to enjoy the land of Inaba.

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