Shisa
Shisa (シーサー, shīsā, 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.[1] The open mouth shisa traditionally wards off evil spirits, and the closed mouth shisa keeps good spirits in.
History
Like the guardian lions in Chinese culture).
Legend
When a Chinese emissary returned from a voyage to the court at
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, 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.[6]
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.[7]
Bibliography
- Chizue, Sesoko. Legends of Okinawa. First publication, in Okinawa, 1969.
Gallery
-
Stylised image of a shisa.
-
Varieties of shisa (excluding the dragon) at a shop.
-
Shisa in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture
-
More shop shisa.
-
Typical (right-side) shisa.
-
A closed-mouth (left-side) shisa.
-
Open-mouthed shisa on a traditional tile roof in Okinawa Prefecture.
-
Shisa statue from Miyako Island.
-
Shisa on vending machines.
-
The Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology uses a stylised Shisa as its logo.
See also
- Carranca, boat figurehead used in Brazil
- Chinese art
- Chinese guardian lions
- Chinese mythology in popular culture
- Japanese sculpture
- King Caesar, originally King Shisa, a kaiju (Japanese giant monster) inspired by the shisa
- Komainu, lion-like statues used in Shinto shrines
- Seasarmon
- Tutelary
- Qilin
References
- ^ "Okinawa Shisa Travelogue". Okinawa Prefectural Government. Retrieved 2010-08-09.
- ^ "Okinawa Shisa Travelogue". Okinawa Prefectural Government. Archived from the original on 2009-10-09. Retrieved 2010-08-09.
- ^ "Okinawa Shisa Travelogue". Okinawa Prefectural Government. Archived from the original on 2009-10-08. Retrieved 2010-08-09.
- ^ "おきけん - シーサー". okiken.com. Archived from the original on 2011-10-09. Retrieved 2010-08-09.
- ^ Titi28.seesaa.net
- ^ Adopted from Legends of Okinawa by Chizue Sesoko
- ^ "Okinawa Shisa Travelogue". Okinawa Prefectural Government.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Shisa.
- Image of a shisaa
- Netsuke: 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