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Meru-san is a fluffy rabbit who loves to be very clean and groom herself.

Professor Faculty of Social Sciences Hiroyuki Sasahara​

After graduating from the School of Arts and Letters, Waseda University, he completed the doctoral coursework in the Graduate School of Letters, Arts and Sciences  (Japanese Literature). He has held his current position since 2007. His specialties are Japanese linguistics and kanji studies. He is responsible for research on linguistic expression, the kanji cultural sphere, media and language, etc.

I have a rabbit at home. When my family goes out and I go to a lecture, the rabbit stays at home. Every time the doorbell rings, the rabbit stands there, pricking up its ears and wondering, "Who is it?", before looking around.

Meru-san as a baby 6 years ago

When I was little, we had a cat at home, but now we can't keep one because my eldest son is allergic to cats and the house is too small and full of books. Then, one day, when I came home, my family was smiling and pointing their hands at a cage where there was a baby rabbit with round eyes.

My second son named her "Meru" because of her fluffy caramel-colored fur. It wasn't until six months after she was born that we realized she was a female, but everyone thought for sure she was because of her facial expressions and behavior. She was cute and round, and as she grew up, everyone recognized her as a beautiful rabbit. When it's warm, she sleeps with her belly exposed, which makes me happy because it means she feels safe.

It is unusual for her to have her eyes closed. Her shiny eyes are usually open and alert even when she is sleeping.

Rabbits are weak herbivores and are at the bottom of the mammalian food chain, with tigers (or now humans?) at the top. Eating grass is healthy for them, but they love dried vegetables because they are sweet, and if you try to feed them to them, they will lick with their tongues, stand up, and bite down before reaching the treat. Meru-san will gobble down her favorite foods, and if you don't give them to her, she will bite down on the plate and shake it around in anger. Although she is a dwarf (※), she actually weighs 2kg and gives off a sense of vitality.

*A type of rabbit. They are characterized by their small size, usually weighing around 1kg.

If she hears a distant sound or wants food, she stands up and stretches.

My research life tends to be confined to my study, where I dig through mountains of old and new literature and compile it on my computer every day. I always work on more than 10 different things at the same time, and when I get bored, I switch to another, and when I get bored of that, I switch to another, and so on. When my brain finally gets saturated and it's a good time, I go downstairs to give Meru-san some food and snacks. Rabbits become more energetic at night, and since they don't make any noise, they want to get out by chewing on their cages, and when I open the door,  she jumps out to play.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, I made handouts for my lectures for the first time in a while, but I thought that it would be boring if it was just text. That's when I realized that Meru-san had been at home all this time, and that she was, in a sense, a pro at staying at home. So, I added a photo and a message to the handout, such as, "I'll comb her hair so that she doesn't get into a shivering state called stasis," and students wrote things like, "I was looking forward to that, so I tried my best to read the long handout all the way to the end." When I couldn't include a picture of Meru-san, I received not only disappointment but also voices of protest. One student applied the content of the lecture on kanji and said that they had thought of a kanji for Meru-san's name and gave it the beautiful kanji "瞳瑠 Meru."

Meru-san's jewel-like eyes are helping to soothe the various fatigues caused by work and other things today.

Lecture handouts distributed in class. Sasahara writes down what he has learned and thought through Meru-san's actions and communication. (Click to enlarge)