Familiar: No
Spirit Animal: Yes
Spirit Guide: No
Totem: Yes
Mythical: Yes
Supernatural: No
Shisa dogs are a traditional Ryukyuan cultural artifact and decoration derived from Ancient Chinese guardian lions, often seen in similar pairs, resembling a cross between a lion and a dog from Okinawan mythology. They stand watch and protect people from evil spirits. Shisa are wards, believed to protect from some evils. A cross between a dog and a lion, these fanged beasts are actually considered friendly and comforting. Shisa are a very common feature and distinctive trait of the culture of the Okinawa islands, and it is simply impossible to ignore them when staying on the islands.
Shisa, also known as shi-shi(“lion”) in the local language, are found everywhere in Okinawa. Because they are believed to provide protection and to ward off evil spirits, they often sit outside or on the roof of many buildings in the archipelago, including those of private houses, large stores, corporate buildings, hospitals, and even schools. These figures were originally used as guardians to residences and shrines.
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. Some Okinawans believe the female has her mouth closed to “keep in the good”, while the male has his mouth open to “scare away the bad”. Some Shisa are featured with one paw laid upon a golden sphere supposed to symbolize good fortune, a concentration of goodness, wealth and bountiful crops.
Shisa dogs are not to be confused with Koma-inu lion dogs which you can sometimes see outside temples all over Japan, especially around tori in Shinto shrines. In mainland Japan, there is a very similar looking lion dog figure called koma-inu (Korean dog) which were adopted from Korea, and are considered cousins of shisa. Although often indistinguishable, koma-inu are usually reserved for religious structures, whereas shisa can be found anywhere. They are similar and both are a variation of the guardian lions from China. From the Edo period, they started to be called “guardian dogs” on mainland Japan.
It is believed that Shisa were imported from China into the archipelago around the 14th or 15th century. Several stories recount the manner in which they arrived on the island with varying degrees of fantasy. The main one, however, seems to originate from Madanbashi, a village south of Naha. Legend tells that when a Chinese emissary returned from a voyage to the court at Shuri Castle, he brought a gift for the king of the Ryukyu archipelago, a necklace decorated with a figurine of a shisa. The king found it charming and wore it underneath his clothes. At the Naha Port bay, the village of Madanbashi was often terrorized by a sea dragon who ate the villagers and destroyed their property. Although the villagers tried to fight back, the strength of the beast was too strong for them to resist. They were constantly losing family members and friends, and were beginning to lose hope that they would ever be safe.
One day, the king was visiting the village, and one of these attacks happened; all the people ran and hid. The local noro, or village priestess, 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. As the dragon was wreaking havoc, the nororemembered her dream from the night before. She had been told to have the king “raise his necklace to the heavens”. At first, she had not understood the vision, but now she knew what to do; she sent a 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 as the shisa came to life. 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 Forest near Naha Ohashi bridge. The townspeople then built a large stone shisa to protect it from the dragon’s spirit and other threats. To this day, the inhabitants of Madanbashi continue to gather on the 15th of August to offer prayers and gifts (mainly fruits) to the Iri-nu statue, protector of the forest.
The oldest and largest shisa statue in all of Okinawa, the Stone Lion of Tomori, was erected in 1689 and is 5 ½ feet by 4 ½ feet large. According to the village archives, Tomori had long suffered from repeated fires and consulted with the local priest on how to protect themselves. He told them the nearby Mount Yaese was a volcano and the source of their problems. If the villagers placed a “lion-shaped” object facing the mountain, they would no longer have to worry. They did as he instructed, and from then on, there were no more fires. However, the worst was not yet over.
In 1945, the Battle of Okinawa ravaged the island with ¼ of the Okinawan population losing their lives. But somehow, the stone lion prevailed and the bullet holes from the battle are still visible on the statue. There is even an iconic photo from that time with soldiers seeking refuge behind the statue. In 1974, the Tomori Lion was declared a prefectural cultural asset and an important piece of folk culture. Locals still pray to the statue to ask for protection, and tourists often visit to pay their respect, as well as to remember the long history it has witnessed.
April 3rd is shisa-no-hi or Shisa Day. In Japanese shi means four, san means three, and sound similar to shisa when combined together. Japan loves word puns and they found a way to work it into a cultural celebration.
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