Talk:Shisa

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Untitled[edit]

Shiisaa yaibin!

waNya, « NO DUH » diiyoon.

You totally beat me to it. Pu Champoru! --IronMaidenRocks (talk) 03:21, 18 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Shisa and Christianity[edit]

Concerning the following posted by anonymous (70.180.138.227):

"(independant source)

A less published idea connects the history of the Shisa to early Christianity. Christ is known in the Apocolypse as The Alpha and the Omega, or the Beginning and the End. The Shisa with mouth open is in essence saying "aw" - the beginning of the Japanese phonetic language. The mouth closed shisa is thus saying "nn" or "mm" as the end of the same alphabet. There is little evidence supporting this theory, but the unique similarities are striking. It is possible that the Japanese and other parts of Asia have deeper roots to the Western world than archeological records indicate. The Bible indicates that shortly after Christ's death and during the initial growth of the church, missionaries were sent abroad to spread the Gospel. It is possible some of these reached deep into Asia and even convinced many that the Alpha and Omega would save them. This belief could have been lost in traslation and modified into the current idea of two shisa dogs protecting a household."

I have never heard or read this story concerning their open and shut mouths. The paragraph reads waaaaay too much like "this is what I've heard" or something from Mormon propaganda/teaching materials. It REEKS of cultural imperialism. I think it is "less published" because it's patently false. This is pseudohistory that manages to get things wrong concerning the histories of art, religion, and the Ryukyu Islands.

I am removing this, and think it should stay removed until someone can verify this story. A cursory glance through Google turned up nothing of the sort when searching for "shisa" and "Christianity". Turly-burly 06:31, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]


I've heard the idea of the two shiisa with their mouths open and closed representing the "a" sound and the "n" sound, respectively the first and the last sound in the Japanese syllabary. If you put them together, you get a sound 'an', which is believed to be the equivilant of the symbol 'Aum' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aum), which originated in India and was bought to Japan as part of Buddhism. Shiisa, as well as other statues of gaurdian deities found in Buddhist temples in mainland Japan often come in pairs, one with the mouth open, one with the mouth closed. The similarity with the Christian concept of Alpha and Omega is certainly interesting, though.

The above was added to the article without a reference on 9 November 2010 anonymously by 219.111.198.195. I've removed it from the article as I've never heard it, google searches for "shisa" and "Buddha" return only results for Wikipedia and its derivatives, and natives of Okinawa who I asked did not believe this statement to be true. Further, the Japanese language article does not have this information in it. Computermacgyver (talk) 14:58, 16 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Shishi and koma-inu[edit]

I am surprised to discover that (a) Koma-inu redirects here - there are stone lions/dogs throughout Japan, and taking a somewhat different form than in Okinawa, and (b) that there does not appear to be any article for the related mythological shishi (獅子). Does anyone know if this article does exist, and if so, what it might be listed under? Thanks. LordAmeth 18:23, 8 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]


The title[edit]

Shouldn't this article be moved from “Shisa” to “Shīsā”? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.35.16.144 (talk) 17:22, 8 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Actually the correct romanization is Shiisā. Osarusan (talk) 00:26, 28 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Osarusan: Um, no, this isn't Japanese. The correct romanization is Shiisaa. Ryukyuan romanization doesn't use macrons. The common name in English is Shisa, however. ミーラー強斗武 (StG88ぬ会話) 03:02, 28 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Interesting. I was under the impression that Okinawan also followed Hepburn romanization. I haven't been able to find any sources saying otherwise. Can you point me in the right direction? Osarusan (talk) 13:52, 28 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Merge proposal[edit]

Shisa and Shisaa appear to be the same thing. Pfhreak (talk) 01:33, 5 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Shisa and Gender[edit]

This sentence from the current article seems to need correction:

Some people believe[who?] that one is male and the other is female, and provide various justifications for which is which; for example, "the female has her mouth shut as she should" or "the male has his mouth shut to hold in all the family's good fortune".

I cannot find references in any online sources, but I have always been told that the female has her mouth shut to "keep in the good" and the male has his mouth open to "keep out the bad". The Spanish and Portuguese versions of this article both plainly state the female has her mouth shut and the male his mouth open. The Japanese and French versions make no mention of gender. I will consult some print sources to see what I find. --Computermacgyver (talk) 02:02, 8 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I haven't found any English sources, but after reading quite a few sources in Japanese, two justifications for gender assignments appear frequently. These are incorporated into the article now with citations to the Japanese sources. Computermacgyver (talk) 21:31, 25 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

While it's not much of a justification nor a citation, having spent a week in Naha, Okinawa, talking to the locals (in Japanese), there's very little ambiguity among the Okinawans that the left one, with the closed mouth, is female, and that the right-side open-mouthed one is male. No real justification was ever given; just a sort of "this is how it is" explanation. 126.244.94.124 (talk) 02:55, 6 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

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