Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Shisa (Japanese: シーサー, Hepburn: shīsā, Okinawan: シーサー, romanized: shiisaa) is a traditional Ryukyuan cultural artifact and decoration derived from Chinese guardian lions, often seen in similar pairs, resembling a cross between a lion and a dog, from Okinawan mythology. Shisa are wards, believed to protect from some evils.
In 1954, Jirō Kinjō, a potter from Tsuboya, became the first Okinawan to be named a Living National Treasure. In addition to dishes, vessels, and roof tiles, Ryukyuan pottery is especially known for the production of funerary urns, and shisa, lion-like guardians placed on rooftops and at gates to protect homes and other spaces from evil spirits.
Kariyushi shirts manufactured in Okinawa for local Okinawan residents are usually adorned with characteristic Okinawan designs found in traditional Okinawan arts, shisa temple guardian designs, and simple floral patterns in muted colors. They are often used to promote tourism in Okinawa, and have been established in replacing the standard white ...
Okinawan staple foods are traditionally potatoes, such as sweet potato or taro root, but they are substituted to rice or wheat flour, then Okinawans developed original dishes such as taco rice. After the end of the occupation, they still have original food cultures, and Americanized foods are frequently eaten in their diets.
The idea of the okazuya was a result of Japanese and Okinawan immigration in the late 1800s. Thousands came to Hawaii to work as contract laborers in the fruit and sugar plantations . [ 6 ] While men labored in the plantation fields, women were doing household jobs such as cooking.
The Okinawan variation, using awamori, soy sauce and miso, is known as Rafute (ラフテー). Nikujaga (肉じゃが): beef and potato stew, flavored with sweet soy. Nizakana (煮魚): fish poached in sweet soy (often on the menu as nitsuke (煮付け)). Sōki (ソーキ): Okinawan dish of pork stewed with bone.
In Okinawa, this is known as Uchinaa-Yamatoguchi (Okinawan Japanese). In Amami Ōshima, it's called Ton-futsūgo (Amami Japanese). [10] In 2009, UNESCO included the Ryukyuan languages in its atlas. The Yaeyama and Yonaguni languages are classified as "severely endangered", whereas the other 4 Ryukyuan varieties are "definitely endangered".
It is similar with Japan’s stacking style, but it is different in the use of white limestone. Accordingly, Okinawan houses are different from the houses found in mainland Japan in terms of aesthetics rather than style. [2] In fact, Okinawan houses are made of three different styles of stonework: aikata-zumi, nozura-zumi, and nuno-zumi. [3]