Video: Shisa is the talisman of "non-Japanese" Okinawa, which will surely protect its owner
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
The island of Okinawa, although it belongs to Japan, is very different from it. And the climate here is especially fertile, subtropical, and the locals are not very much like the Japanese, and they do not speak quite Japanese. This is how she is, this completely "non-Japanese" Okinawa. In addition, the island's keeper and talisman named Shisa is in high esteem here, without which no tourist leaves Okinawa.
The island of Okinawa, which has become the most popular resort in Japan in recent decades, is mesmerizing from the very first minutes. The difference between Okinawa and the rest of Japan is easy to explain. Several centuries ago, the Ryukyu archipelago was part of the Celestial Empire, later the united Kingdom of Ryukyu was formed here. This kingdom existed for 450 years, and at the end of the 19th century, in 1879, it was conquered by Japan and became a Japanese prefecture, changing its name from Ryukyu to Okinawa.
An integral part of the original culture of Okinawa are unusual mythical creatures - Shisa. They are figures that look like a dog and a lion at the same time, half-dogs - half-lion. At the same time, the sizes of the figures, the material from which they are made, can be very different - stone, ceramics, wood and others. And Shis can also do anything - play, play music, fish.
Shis usually sit next to each other in pairs. One of them looks more like a dog and has a closed mouth, while the other looks more like a stern lion with an open mouth. The female principle is attributed to the figurine with the closed mouth, it does not let the good out of the house, while the other, the male figurine, protects the house and does not let evil into it.
They can be found everywhere on the island, literally at every step.
Every tourist who has visited Okinawa considers it his duty to purchase Shisu as a souvenir; those who wish can make such a figurine themselves.
And Shisa comes from China … Her history dates back to the times when Okinawa was not part of Japan, and there is a beautiful legend about this.
Once, a figurine of Shisa was brought to the palace of the Ryukyu Kingdom from the Celestial Empire as a gift to the king. One of the priestesses, Noro, predicted that Shisa would help the king defeat the dragon, and he kept this gift with him at all times, under his clothes. In those days, the island was restless, the inhabitants were in constant fear - a terrible dragon attacked villages, ravaging and burning houses, eating people. One day the dragon once again appeared in the village in which the king was at that time. All the inhabitants fled in horror and hid. And then the king remembered Noro's prediction, took out Shisa's figure and raised it high above him. The dragon was terribly frightened by the unknown beast, roared terribly, and from its loud roar a large piece fell off the rock standing on the shore and crushed the dragon's tail. The fate of the dragon was a foregone conclusion, and he died on the shore.
Well, since then, grateful residents have respected Shisu as a national hero, and believe that she will always protect them from troubles and hardships. On the seashore, at the very place where, according to legend, the dragon died, a monument was erected to her.
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