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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.
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 ...
American servicemen during World War II were taught that one could distinguish between some Okinawan women and mainland Japanese women through hajichi. Nonetheless the practise became less and less common over time and by the 1950s most young women in Okinawa rejected getting the traditional tattoos.
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.
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]
Legends of Okinawa by Sesoku Chizue. First publication, Okinawa, 1969. Hard-to-find collection of legends and folk tales. The Ghosts of Okinawa by Jayne Hitchcock. MHS Printing, April, 2000. ISBN 978-4-9900359-5-2. A short collection of ghost stories from around Okinawa. More information available at the author's website. Ouwehand, C. (1985).
Shisa statues can often be seen on or in front of houses—this relates to the ancient Ryukyuan belief that the male spirit is the spirit of the outside and the female spirit is the spirit of the inside. Godhood is mimicked with many attributes, and its in ease without any underlying symbolic order.
The shīsā (シーサー), the stone animals that in Okinawa guard the gates or the roofs of houses, are close relatives of the shishi and the komainu, objects whose origin, function and symbolic meaning they share. [22] Their name itself is centuries old regional variant of shishi-san (獅子さん, lit. ' Mr. Lion '). [6]