is a traditional Ryukyuan

cultural artifact A cultural artifact, or cultural artefact (see American and British English spelling differences), is a term used in the social sciences, particularly anthropology, ethnology and sociology for anything created by humans which gives informatio ...

and decoration derived from Chinese guardian lions, often seen in similar pairs, resembling a cross between a

lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphi ...

and a

dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relativ ...

, from Okinawan mythology. Shisa are wards, believed to protect from some evils. People place pairs of shisa on their rooftops or flanking the gates to their houses, with the left shisa traditionally having a closed mouth, the right one an open mouth. The open mouth shisa traditionally wards off evil spirits, and the closed mouth shisa keeps good spirits in.

History

Like the ''

komainu , often called lion-dogs in English, are statue pairs of lion-like creatures either guarding the entrance or the ''honden'', or inner shrine of many Japanese Shinto shrines or kept inside the inner shrine itself, where they are not visible to the ...

'' ("lion dogs"), the shisa are a variation of the guardian lions from China. From the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional ''daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was character ...

, they started to be called "guardian dogs" in general in mainland Japan. Gender is variously assigned to the shisa. Some Okinawans believe the male has his mouth closed to keep bad out of the home, while the female has her mouth open to share goodness. Others believe the female has her mouth closed to "keep in the good", while the male has his mouth open to "scare away the bad" (Compare this to the distinction between male and female guardian lions in Chinese culture).

Legend

When a Chinese emissary returned from a voyage to the court at

Shuri Castle was a Ryukyuan '' gusuku'' castle in Shuri, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Between 1429 and 1879, it was the palace of the Ryukyu Kingdom, before becoming largely neglected. In 1945, during the Battle of Okinawa, it was almost completely destroye ...

, he brought a gift for the king, a necklace decorated with a figurine of a shisa. The king found it charming and wore it underneath his clothes. At the

Naha is the capital city of Okinawa Prefecture, the southernmost prefecture of Japan. As of 1 June 2019, the city has an estimated population of 317,405 and a population density of 7,939 persons per km2 (20,562 persons per sq. mi.). The total area i ...

Port bay, the village of Madanbashi was often terrorized by a

sea dragon Sea Dragon or seadragon may refer to: Fish * Leafy seadragon (''Phycodurus eques'') * '' Phyllopteryx'' genus ** Common seadragon or weedy seadragon (''Phyllopteryx taeniolatus'') ** Ruby seadragon (''Phyllopteryx dewysea'') Military * Operat ...

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, so that 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 as the "Gana-mui Woods" near Naha Ohashi bridge. The townspeople then built a large stone ''shisa'' to protect it from the dragon's spirit and other threats.

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.

Bibliography

*Chizue, Sesoko. ''Legends of Okinawa''. First publication, in Okinawa, 1969.

Gallery

File:Shisa face.svg, Stylised image of a shisa. File:Guardians.jpg, Varieties of shisa (excluding the dragon) at a shop. File:名護市のシーサー.JPG, ''Shisa'' in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture File:Shisa Okinawa.jpg, More shop shisa. File:Okinawan shisa.JPG, Typical (right-side) shisa. File:Okinawan shīsā.jpg, A closed-mouth (left-side) shisa. File:Shisa.jpg, Open-mouthed shisa on a traditional tile roof in

Okinawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest cit ...

. File:Miyakojima-Shisa.jpg, Shisa statue from

Miyako Island is the largest and the most populous island among the Miyako Islands of Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Miyako Island is administered as part of the City of Miyakojima, which includes not only Miyako Island, but also five other populated islands ...

. File:Shisa on vending machines.jpg, Shisa on

vending machine A vending machine is an automated machine that provides items such as snacks, beverages, cigarettes, and lottery tickets to consumers after cash, a credit card, or other forms of payment are inserted into the machine or otherwise made. The fir ...

s. File:OIST logo.png, The Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology uses a stylised Shisa as its logo.

References

External links

{{commons category, Shisa
Image of a shisaaNetsuke: masterpieces from the Metropolitan Museum of Art
an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains many representations of Shisa Okinawan legendary creatures Japanese folk art Japanese folklore Mythological lions Mythological dogs Lions in art