After Hoshi's recovery at the hands of a remote village's hands, taking her moonlike glow as an omen she should not simply be made into dinner, Hoshi had lived from the late Jõmon period to the early Nara period as something of a good luck charm. Becoming more sentient and coherent as the centuries went on, it was not until the Kofun period that a humanoid form had been earned, gaining awareness more as the humans knew it. In this form she had stayed away from the humans in this form to live more akin to a wild child while returning only as a feral rabbit when trying to learn and observe and learn. Some times even to steal some woodworking tools to practice in the forest, though one hardly let a small rabbit drag off their tools without noticing it.

Not until the Asuka period when more monks came to these far mountainous villages to set up shrines did she find her place among humans. Accepted as a feral rabbit, she herself became enshrined while the monk allowed her life as a young woman, to get proper education in writing, working as a shrine maiden until the monk passed away without successor.

This left her to maintain the shrine without a priest. To fill time not working with practicing carpentry, learning to master her form in isolation so she could enter the village without religious upheaval.. .. ... And to find her first projects being the creation of a mallet and a mortar, so that once she could buy rice after selling religious statuettes instead of stealing individual plants as a feral and turn it into dough for mochi, as though an uncontrollable instinct urged her to prepare for every new year.

Before that time came it would already be the Muromachi period, during which the shrine aided the occasional refugee and she chased off the odd bandit with her mallet and feral fury. One such a mortal, seeking redemption but being unable to live by the nearby village, she had fallen for. Spending their days together, managing to the shrine where the mortal became the new priest and monk, Hoshi would find herself with child, leading to Tsukiko, her blind firstborn, to enter this world during the Sengoku period.

Time flew by to her, and before she knew it she was alone in the shrine once more, having laid her partner to rest, her reaching her early maturity with her slower aging by the time the monk had passed away.

It was nonetheless a mostly peaceful life, especially in the Heian period, though her daughter would grow up to wish to travel and explore the world, which she would allow on the condition she return a month or two before the year's end so they may make mochi together.

During these periods of reunion Tsukiko would find Hoshi in states of peace. The shrine occasionally visited by mortals and spirits alike, though never at the same time, never without a disguise for the mortals. Some would stay longer than others and upon one return Tsukiko would even find her mother once more with child. By the start of the Heisei period, Tsukiko would stay for longer periods to help and care, to be there for the birth of Rin, the youngest daughter. Though centuries of generations apart as well as differing wildly in personalities, from the now calmed and motherly Hoshi & her country way of life, to the wandering and scholarly Tsukiko as well as the wild and energetic Rin, the family remained tight knit whether they were near or far from each other as they would often be.


A little family history, I hope you enjoyed~
For an added sense of scale for the timeline, I would recommend:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Japan

After these rabbit shenanigans in this the year of the lapine, we will return with more properly scheduled foxes, I promise~

Art © KucingKecil