One of the most popular dances in the Japanese Kabuki theater is Renjishi, a parable about two shishi, mythological lion-like animals. The first version, played at the end of the Edo Period, in 1861, was Katsusaburô Renjishi, inspired in turn by a Noh theater play called Shakkyo (Stone Bridge).

Renjishi tells the story of a father shishi, represented in art with white hair (photographed here on a hagoita) who, willing to test the power and the courage of his son, throws him of a cliff. The son survives the fall and manages to climb back, the play ending with a famous dance celebrating the sons’ achievement…

Hagoita

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Yesterday’s Japan Photo: Japanese superlatives, the tallest wooden Shachi roof ornaments