[沖繩] 愛戀。風獅爺。

Falling in Love with Shisa in Okinawa~

Tracing back to the age that I met "Fong-Shi-Ye" for the
first time...It has been eighteen years ago when I was
undergraduate.
I took a three-credit course in "General History of China".
For the campus of NCKU located in Tainan City, it's convenient
for the teacher to guide students seeing this old city with its
historical buildings and temples, which were built with a lot of
allusions originated from Chinese architecture.
It indeed was a course featured with both sense and sensibility.

回溯認識風獅爺的年代，
已經是十八年前的事了。
那時候在台南念大學，修一門叫「中國通史」的課，
地緣之便，老師帶著大家走訪台南府城的古蹟，
實地解說源自中國的廟宇建築之美，
以及各項裝飾或擺設的由來與典故。
那真是一門感性與理性兼具的好課程！


風獅爺。之一。

As I've mentioned previously, the "Fong-Shi-Ye" in Tainan were
only the type of roof guardian. It was believed that people living
in the house with roof guardian are protected from devil.

When I was a graduate student, I moved to another old city
"Hsin-Chu" (New-Bamboo in meaning) and studied in NTHU
for my master degree...
Hsin-Chu is also an old city full of historical buildings, but it
showed a very different appearance and feelings from Tainan.
There was no "Fong-Shi-Ye" in Hsin-Chu, however, it was the
city that my first meet of Kingmen's "Fong-Shi-Ye" happened~

不過那時候只認識台南的風獅爺，
全都是鎮屋守宅的屋頂風獅爺。

碩士班到了另一個府城，新竹。
都是有年紀的府城，卻是不同的風情。
新竹沒有風獅爺，但我在這個時期，認識金門的風獅爺。


風獅爺。之二。

It is an unexpected event to meet "Fong-Shi-Ye" in Okinawa!
What a big surprise to meet an old friend at a place I've never
landed. A distance of four hundred miles is nothing~
Okinawa is such a magic place full of peace and love like my homeland.

The moment I saw "Shisa" in Okinawa laughing in the way exactly
the same as the "Fong-Shi-Ye" at home, I understood why I felt
acquainted at the first look~ Once upon a time families we were!

這回在沖繩，真有它鄉遇故人的驚喜，
一千公里的距離實在不算什麼～
這是一個讓我感到安詳且親切的國度，
尤其當我看到沖繩的風獅爺，
跟家裡擺設的那一對來自金門的風獅爺，
有著一模一樣的歡樂笑顏時。。。
我終於明白～原來這所有的人親土親，
真的是久遠年代以前的「歡樂一家親」！



風獅爺。之三。

I love "Shisa" especially those in the style of laughing happily.
Looking at them makes me laugh happily from the bottom of my heart.

We spent the afternoon before our departure fooling around
in Naha City. I just could not stop looking for "Shisa" in various
types of design. I want to take all "Shisa" with me and let them
meet my "Fong-Shi-Ye" at home !!

我特別喜愛這些開懷大笑的造型～
光是看著都會忍不住跟著開心的笑！
在那霸市區閒逛的半天，
我的眼光不斷地尋找各式造型的風獅爺，
好想把它們通通帶回家，跟家裡的金門風獅爺團聚唷～



風獅爺。之四。

Ruth was a good company and "functioned" as a brake in time
when I was fascinated to search for "Shisa"...finally, I had four
pairs of "Shisa" to go home with me~

還好有學妹在一旁時時勸阻我的衝動，
所以只帶了這四對回家。

The last "Shisa" shown below are the "Fong-Shi-Ye" at home.
It was a gift from my junior schoolmate when he served in
army in Kingmen. See? "Fong-Shi-Ye" from Kingmen look
exactly the same as "Shisa" from Okinawa!

By the way, this pair of "Fong-Shi-Ye" from Kingmen are also
featuring as "Shi-Gan-Dang".

最後這一對是學弟揚捷送的金門風獅爺～
我說的沒錯吧！金門跟沖繩的風獅爺長得一模一樣！
不過，金門這一對同時也是「石敢當」唷～


風獅爺。之五。

If you are interested in "Fong-Shi-Ye", the website below will
tell you more about them.

對風獅爺有興趣的話，可以參考以下連結。
http://content.edu.tw/local/jinmn/jinhu/windlion/index.htm

Besides, wikipedia in Japanese also provides information of "Shisa"
(シーサー) and "Shi-Gan-Dang" (いしがんどう、いしがんとう).
另外日文版的 wikipedia，也有風獅爺和石敢當的相關資料。
http://www.wikipedia.org/ or http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/

*NCKU: Natl. Cheng-Kung Univ.
*NTHU: Natl. Tsing-Hua Univ.