Shisa
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Shisa or Shiisaa (シーサー) (Okinawan: siisaa) is a traditional Ryukyuan decoration, often found in pairs, resembling a cross between a lion and a dog. Many people put a pair of Shisa on their rooftops or flanking the gates to their houses. Shisa are wards, believed to protect from various evils. When found in pairs, the shisa on the right traditionally has an open mouth, and the one on the left, a closed mouth [1].
Originally pairs like this were called "shisa and guardian dogs": the left with its mouth closed is the guardian, the right with its mouth open is the shisa [2]. Some people believe that one is male and the other, female, and provide various justifications for which is which; for example, "the female has her mouth shut as she should" or "the male has his mouth shut to hold in all the family's good fortune". (Compare this to the distinction between male and female guardian lions in Chinese culture.)
The shisa, like the koma-inu (lion dogs), is a variation of the guardian lions ("fu dogs") from China [3].
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[edit] The Shisa Legend
(adapted from Legends of Okinawa by Chizue Sesoko)
When a certain emissary to China returned from one of his voyages to the court at Shuri Castle, he brought with him as a gift for the king a necklace decorated with a small figurine of a shisa dog. The king found it charming and wore it underneath his clothes. Now it happened that at the Naha Port bay, the village of Madanbashi was often terrorized by a sea dragon who ate the villagers and destroyed their property. One day, the King was visiting the village, and one of these attacks happened; all the people ran and hid. The local noro had been told in a dream to instruct the king when he visited to stand on the beach and lift up his figurine towards the dragon; she sent the boy, Chiga, to tell him the message. He faced the monster with the figurine held high, and immediately a giant roar sounded all through the village, a roar so deep and powerful that it even shook the dragon. A massive boulder then fell from heaven and crushed the dragon's tail. He couldn't move, and eventually died. This boulder and the dragon's body became covered with plants and surrounded by trees, and can still be seen today. It is the "Gana-mui Woods" near Naha Ohashi bridge. The townspeople built a large stone shisa to protect it from the dragon's spirit and other threats.
[edit] Great Stone Shisa at Tomimori
At Tomimori Village near Kochinda Town in the far southern part of Okinawa, there were often many fires. The people of the area sought out Saiouzui, a Feng Shui master, to ask him why there were so many fires. He believed they were because of the power of the nearby Mt. Yaese, and suggested that the townspeople build a stone shisa to face the mountain. They did so, and thus have protected their village from fire ever since.[4]
[edit] Shisa in popular culture
The 1974 tokusatsu kaiju film Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla features a giant shisa monster called King Caesar, who was awakened from its ancient slumber in Okinawa to help Godzilla destroy his mechanical doppelgänger, Mechagodzilla. This monster was later used in Godzilla: Final Wars as one of the monsters that were controlled by the Xilians.
The Pokémon Arcanine is based on the shisa.
The Digimon Seasarmon is based on a shisa, along with Chatsuramon.
In Kiyohiko Azuma's Azumanga Daioh, Osaka declares "Shisa Yaibiimi?" This means "Is this a Shisa?" in Okinawan.
[edit] Bibliography
- Chizue, Sesoko. Legends of Okinawa. First publication, Okinawa, 1969.
[edit] See also
- Kara-shishi - Lions are often a complement to stone dogs in Japanese (but not necessarily Okinawan) symbolism.
- Tutelary
- Amulet
- Japanese sculpture
- Chinese art
