April 3 is Shisa Day because of the Japanese syllabary that reads “Shi” (4) and “Sa” (3).
The name “Shisa” is pronounced “shishi(lion)” in Okinawan dialect, and it is said that Shisa has the meaning of driving away evil spirits.
When I visited Okinawa last year on a family vacation, I saw Shisa in many places.
The most impressive shisa was the “Tsuboya Ufu Shisa” near our hotel. “Ufu” means “big” or “large” in Okinawan dialect.
A search of J-Plat Pat for items related to the Shisa in the intellectual property field yielded 33 hits for designs related to Shisa figurines and 12 hits for the trademark “Shisa”.(Rabbit)