free web hosting | free website | Web Hosting | Free Website Submission | shopping cart | php hosting
affordable web hosting | Pets | web page hosting | web hosting | website hosting | web hosting service | web hosting | best web hosting
Welcome to the Silver Fang's Fruits Basket site

Main Page
Introduction Story Characters The Curse
Manga info Picture Galleries
Episode Summaries Reviews Fun stuff
Series Music Fanart Links About Us Contact Us

Introduction

    Fruits Basket is a story based on the legend of the Juunishi, which is thought to have originated in China during the Yin dynasty (1600 - 1000 BC). In modern day, the animals of the Chinese zodiac are associated with certain years, however, when it originated, the Juunishi was used in months, time and direction. Twelve (juuni in japanese) is a very important number in timekeeping. There are twelve hours in a day, twelve months in a year, and twelve years in a cycle all associated with the twelve animals of the zodiac. The twelve animals that make up the Juunishi are the rat, the ox, the tiger, the rabbit, the dragon, the snake, the horse, the sheep, the monkey, the chicken, the dog and the boar. When the Juunishi was adopted in Japan, the animals of the zodiac were used for the purpose of fourtune telling, rather than astrology. Years were divided up between the animals, and a fourtune could be derived based on which animal reigned over your birth year. To find out which year you were born in, and to see the personality that animal represents, see my Table of Japanese Years at the bottom of the page.

    As is explained in the manga and the show, the legend of the Juunishi begins when all the animals are invited by god, or Buddha, to a farewell party before he left Earth. The only animals that showed up were the animals of the Chinese Zodiac and the order that they showed up in is the order in which they appear in the zodiac. According to the legend, the rat arrived first, having hitched a ride on the ox. As is evident, the cat is not a member of the Juunishi. This is because the rat tricked him into thinking that the party was to take place a day later than it actually was. From that time on it is said that whenever a cat sees a mouse he will chase after it. This explains the spite held for each other by two members of the Sohma family; Kyou Sohma, who is the cat, and Yuki Sohma, who is, of course the mouse.

    Although the Juunishi are today used mostly in fortune-telling and astronomy, its purpose was very different when it originated in China. The Juunishi have always been used in dating, but it originally was associated also with months. Each animal represented one month, in the same way that they represent a year. The rat, as in the yearly system, represents the first month, and so on. Also, the Juunishi were used in time teilling. As you can see from my diagram below, the animals each represent a period we recognize as two hours in the day. The clock begins with the rat at 12:00 am and ends with the boar at 10:00 pm. The hour of the horse begins at 12:00 pm, the hour of the rabbit begins at 6:00 am , the hour of the rooster begins at 6:00 pm, and so on. Also, in my diagram, there is a compass in the center of the clock. This is because the Juunishi are also used in direction. TO the north, and at 12:00 am is the rat, the rabbit is at east, the horse is south and the rooster is west.

    Presently, the monthly and hourly systems of Juunishi are not used very often in Japan. However, the influences that the old systems have had can be seen today. For example, the Juunishi kanji (one of the Japanese alphabets; see our definitions page) for horse is still used for the word "noon". Also, the period of time from 1:00 am through 3:00 am when ghosts supposedly appear is still referred to as the "ox hours".

    If you have any questions on the Juunishi legend or its history or have noticed any errors in our research, please contact us (you can also just click the Contact Us link at the top or bottom of the page!).

 
     Diagram of the Juunishi Time and Directional Systems

Clock and directional diagram



Table of Japanese Years

The following table is based upon the Japanese system derived from the Chinese legend. There are four eras that these years take place over. These are the Heisei era (1989 through the present), the Showa era (1926 - 1988) the Taisho era (1912 - 1925) and the Meiji era (1900 - 1911).

Animal
 Years
Rat (nezumi)
1900, 1912, 1924, 1936, 1948,  1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008
Ox/Cow/Bull (oushi)
1901, 1913, 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009
Tiger (tora)
1902, 1914, 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010
Rabbit (usagi)
1903,  1915, 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011
Dragon (ryu)
1904, 1916, 1928, 1940, 1952, 19 64, 1976, 1988, 2000, 2012
Snake (hebi)
1905, 1917, 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013
Horse (uma)
1906, 1918, 1930,  1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002, 2014
Sheep (hitsuji)
1907,  1919, 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003, 2015
Monkey (yamazaru)
1908, 1920, 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, 2016
Chicken (ondori)
1909, 1921, 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017
Dog (inu)
1910, 1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006, 2018
Boar (inoshishi)
1911, 1923, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019

    As explained above, each animal in the Juunishi represents a person with a specific personality. Although this does not always seem correct, and you can get a more specific profile of yourslef if you also know the element that your year represents, it's still fun to compare these profiles to yourself, and the characters in the series.
   
    The Rat - Nezumi
You are charming, creative, generous, energetic and quick-witted. You are good at saving money and are honest and frugal. You appear soft and serene on the outside, but you have a quick temper, however, you can forget past grudges and form relationships with people you once opposed. You seem to fall into bad relationships, and are most susceptible in your middle ages, however, you have the ability to overcome weakness, and lead a stable and peaceful life.

    The Ox - Oushi
You are stubborn, patient, strong, practical and reliable. You seem to get angry over unimportant things, which can be detrimental to your relationships. You never form strong bonds between family members and are most susceptible during your childhood years. Although when at work you seem to be less progressive, you have high endurance and stick to a task once it is started. You work hard at whatever you do which allows for prosperity in the end.

    The Tiger - Tora
You are brave, loyal, sociable, active, enthusiastic, and self confident. You have a good sense of judgement, and are generally the person who steps up and takes care of things in times of trouble. You are stubborn, which may get you into arguments with superiors, but you are popular amoung peers because of your moralistic nature. You may experience some failure in your finances, but you have a competitive and enterprising nature which will lead you to eventual success and security.

    The Rabbit - Usagi
You are witty, happy, artistic, clever and well-respected. You have good relationships because of your peaceful and caring nature, but your tendancy to talk to much can get you into trouble. You have many likes and dislikes and are successful because of your fickle nature. You often cannot concentrate on one thing, but once your weaknesses are overcome, you are able to lead a peaceful and comfortable life that is envied by others.

    The Dragon - Ryu
You are healthy, energetic, ambitious, honest and stubborn. You have a winning spirit that supports you through trials, however, also causes problems when you lash out without considering the entire issue. You have a ver changeable fate, which brings fourtune and loss in waves. By making good use of your charitable qualities, and overcoming your negative ones, you can ultimately lead a very productive and fulfilling life.

    The Snake - Hebi
You are quite, agile, refined, wise and fashionable. You may appear soft on the outside, but your determined nature allows you success in projects that you undertake. You progress rapidly because of yor methodical approach to things, but are slow to trust people, which is detrimental to relationships including in family and in marriage. You often over-think matters, which can cloud judgement and lead to missed oppourtunities, however, learning from your mistakes can allow you to overcome this.

    The Horse - Uma
You are elegant, charming, honest and independant. You are admired for helping others, and you enjoy doing it, however, you tend to speak your mind which can make you enemies, even amoung those that you have helped. You have difficulties concentrating on one thing, and so you often have little to show for all the work you do. However, you have a positive outlook and are able to easily overcome hardships which brings about unexpected success. Good fourtune will come to you in the opening years of old age.

    The Sheep - Hitsuji
You are caring, creative, helpful, trusting and artistic. You are honest and have a charitable nature. You are religious, but no stranger to hardships and your timid nature makes you wary of others and the cares of the world. If you work at overcoming your weaknesses, you will reciee help from elders. Up to the age of 50, your troubles are many, but after that point, you are able to lead a peaceful, pleasant and long life filled with happiness.

     The Monkey - Yamazaru
You are inventive, versatile, curious, clever and quick. Your inquisitive and enterprising nature brings you great success in early life, however this is dampened by your tendancy to talk too much. You trust others quickly, which can occasionally bring dissapointment, however, if you can overcome this tendancy to act blindly, you will be able to preserve the good fortune of your middle ages and live a comfortable life.

    The Chicken/Rooster - Ondori
You are hardworing, fussy, stylish, determined and confident. You are able to quickly learn about the world which allows you to easily adapt to society and earn success at a relatively young age. However, this leads to a desire for luxury and pften excessive pride, which, when combined with your fickle nature, can lead to repeated failures in later life. You never bond very closely with your parents, so you most likely leave home earlier than most. You are no stranger to good fortune during your middle age years, but the most important good luck to secure will occur at the onsent of old age.

    The Dog - Inu
You are loyal, outspoken, protective, excitable and watchful. You have a high level of self-esteem because of your honest nature and strong ssense of duty. You are also very opinionated and uncomprimising, making you appear obstinate. You may appear stiff on the outside, but you surprise many people with your high quality work and unexpected wisdom. You are lucky to recieve advice and help from elders, which can lead to good fortune throughout your life, but, if ignored, can also lead to many hard times.

    The Boar - Inoshishi
You are trusting, reliable, intelligent, loyal and kind. You are patient and very ambitious which brings success early in life, but you are also inflexible and stubborn, which can make it difficult to keep that success. A large fault that seems to hinder you throughout your life is your lack of generosity and charity. Also, you face many hard times when it comes to residence during your middle age years, and you will most likely end up living far from your birth-town. However, if you heed the advice of your elders, and learn to accept help from others to overcome your faults, you are able to make the best of your good fortunes.
 


| Main Page | Intro | Story | Characters | The Curse | Manga Info | Galleries | Summaries | Reviews | Funstuff | Music | Fanart | Links | About Us | Contact Us |

The Silver Fang main

flagA Canadian made site
Last Modified July 1, 2004