Category: Traditional

I love shisa lions/dogs from Okinawa. At the Tsuboya district in Naha (five minutes walking south from Kokusai-dori) I had the chance to see several artisans creating these figures that are usually seen at the entrance of houses or on rooftops to protect them against evil spirits and dragons.

Legend has it that an envoy from China came to visit the king of Okinawa (Ryukyu kingdom) and was hosted in the Shuri castle. As a present to the king he brought a necklace with a small figure shaped like a dog/lion. The king liked the present so much that since then he wore the necklace all the time.

Near the king’s castle there was a village by the coast where all the villagers had been terrorized for a long time;a huge sea dragon had been eating their children and destroying their houses. One day the king visited the village, he faced the dragon and raised the shisa figure that he had in his necklace, then a huge rock felt from the sky crushing the tail of the evil dragon and leaving him immobilized for ever.

Depending on who you ask in Okinawa you will hear the story with different variations.

Rakugo (落語, literally “fallen words”) is a form of entertainment based on monologues. The rakugoka (the person who does monologues) sits in a seiza position on a zabuton in front of the public and tells funny short stories. Normally the stories/jokes follow a similar patter in which two main characters go through an experience together or discuss/talk about some topic. The rakugoka changes the voice tone depending on the character he is interpreting. The stories usually end with an ochi, a culminating moment in which the moral of the story and the funny part of the joke is unveiled.

Last month I had the chance to attend a rakugo performance. The rakugoka made my imagination fly and he made me have an enjoyable and entertaining time, but for some reason I didn’t fully understand why the jokes were funny. Everybody was laughing but me!

A video so you can have an idea of how a rakugo performance is.

Yesterday, February 3rd, it was setsubun day here in Japan, which supposedly marks the end of the winter (a little bit early) and the entrance of spring. According to tradition, on setsubun day you have to scare the demon spirits away and eliminate all the bad things that happened the former year.

One of the rituals consists on throwing beans to somebody who portrays an Oni (demon). The demon has to dance and pretend to be escaping while no being able to do it. In my company we made the ritual with Maruyama-san portraying the oni/demon while we threw beans at him (you can’t really see them on the video).

For a better explanation about setsubun and the demon ritual, read this post.