@sekaiichi "In Japan, the terms for "fu-dogs" differ, depending on which one you're looking at. The one on the right (open mouth) is called shishi (獅子 = "lion child") and the one on the left (closed mouth) is called komainu (狛犬). The first kanji in komainu is the symbol for these protector lions, while the second kanji simply means dog. I suppose that might be some kind of source for the term "fu-dog?" I'm not quite sure though."

mhmm could be.
just translatetd 狛犬 into my language and it said ‘lion dog’, too. maybe japs saw more a dog in them than a lion?

the site onmarkproductions.com sais:
’One prominent theory holds that the shishi derives from the Chinese Foo Dog’ and you often find dog breeds like a Chow Chow or other chinese dog breed when searching ‘foo dog’.
So maybe they got the fu/fo from this?

also wikipedia said:
‘Reference to guardian lions as dogs in Western cultures may be due to the Japanese reference to them as “Korean dogs” (狛犬・高麗犬) due to their transmission from China through Korea into Japan. It may also be due to the misidentification of the guardian lion figures as representing certain Chinese dog breeds such as the Chow Chow’.

  • 12.07.11
  • 1
  1. chevvy posted this