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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.
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.
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.
Sata andagi (サーターアンダーギー, sātā andāgī) are sweet deep fried buns of dough similar to doughnuts (or the Portuguese malassada, or the Dutch oliebollen), native to Southern China, there named sa-yung (Chinese: 沙翁; pinyin: shāwēng; Jyutping: sa¹ jung¹; Cantonese Yale: sā yūng), then spread to Okinawa.
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 ...
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]
A shisa statue placed on a roof. The kijimunaa (or bunagaya) is one of the most famous of Okinawa's magical creatures. A sprite (Japanese yōsei), the kijimunaa resembles a short young boy and features bright red hair. [10] They look somewhat like a Troll doll. Some say that only children or the pure of heart can see the kijimunaa.