Visiting the “Shishi Museum”
The other day, I finally visited the “Shishi Museum” (Shishi Hakubutsukan) in Shiraoka City, Saitama Prefecture, a place I had long wanted to see. (Shishi means lion in Japanese.)
In fact, I (Matsumura) am a huge fan of Shishi Dance (shishimai). I especially love the three-shishi dances (sanbiki-jishi) of the Kanto region, so much that I would seek out opportunities to head to shrines and watch them.
Now, this museum is Japan’s first private museum dedicated to Shishi Dance, gathering costumes, props, and related materials for Shishi Dance from across Asia and all over Japan. The moment I stepped inside, I was overwhelmed by the colorful Shishi Heads lined up throughout the hall. Every shishi was charming, an irresistible space for any Shishi Dance lover.
The in-person explanation by director Yuichi Takahashi was also fascinating. He gave us a thorough lecture on how each individual Shishi Head came to the museum, how they are used in their respective regions, and the cultural background of Shishi Dance around the world.
By the way, the gamelan degung that we play comes from the Sunda region of West Java, Indonesia, and to my surprise, this museum also held a Sundanese shishi in its collection. Unlike the other shishi, it has a unique style: rather than being “worn” on the head, it is “carried up” on poles. This unexpected encounter led us to tell the director that we are active as gamelan performers in Japan.
Director Takahashi kept that conversation in mind, and after we returned to Fukuoka, he contacted us to say that he would write a short article about our museum visit in the “Shishi Museum News,” a members-only publication of the museum. Below is that article (the text has been pixelated for copyright reasons).
Our gamelan group’s activities were introduced as well. (Incidentally, this “Shishi Museum News” appears to be written entirely by director Takahashi himself, yet it is astonishingly rich in content, and with all the various perks included, the annual membership fee of 3,000 yen is an incredible bargain… If you are interested, please do consider joining. Of course, I joined too.)
Inspired by the director’s passion, I went right ahead and tried making a mini Shishi Head out of materials from a 100-yen shop. Its name is “Nishishi.” It was actually given a brief mention in the booklet as well. The day a homemade shishi appears in our gamelan performances may not be far off.
Finally, director Takahashi, thank you so very much for sharing such wonderful knowledge and for this lovely connection. Not only Shishi Dance fans, but anyone interested in traditional performing arts should pay a visit to the “Shishi Museum.”
Reference link: The 'Shishi Museum' page on the Shiraoka City Tourism Association website