Shōjō

A is the Japanese reading of Chinese xing-xing () or its older form sheng sheng (, translated as "live-lively"), which is a mythical ape, though it has been tentatively identified as an (unknown) orangutan species.

Some commentators have regarded the shōjō sea spirit with a red face and hair and a fondness for alcohol as part of native Japanese folklore. However, shōjō as sea-dwelling spirit was a fictional setting in the Noh play Shōjō, a possible embellishment of the Shan Hai Jing ("Classic of Mountains and Seas") stating this orangutan could be found on a particular seaside mountain. And liquor-drinking was always associated with this beast in China since antiquity.

Nomenclature

The Chinese characters are also a Japanese (and Chinese) word for orangutan, and can also be used in Japanese to refer to someone who is particularly fond of alcohol.

A Noh mask called the shōjō exists (cf. §Noh); also, in Kabuki, a type of stage makeup (kumadori) is called the shōjō.Shogakukan Daijisen Editorial Staff (1998), (Dictionary of the Japanese language), Revised Edition. Tokyo: Shogakukan. .

Development of lore The shōjō has been represented as a sea spirit with a red face and hair and a fondness for alcohol as part of Japanese folktale tradition.

It has sometimes been misconceived as purely native Japanese folklore and superstition, particularly by commentators of the netsuke craft art, since the shōjō is a popular subject for these carvings. Though the conception of the shōjō as an alcohol-loving fairy living in the sea may have passed into folklore, it has its antecedent in medieval Noh play bearing the title Shōjō, set in Ancient China, which in turn derives from the Chinese counterpart, xingxing:

There is no question whatsoever that shōjōs love of liquor derives from the xingxing of Chinese literature, and a number of ancient sources can be listed.Bencao Gangmu citing Ruan Qian (Tang Dynasty). cf. infra. The aspect of dwelling in the sea is a uniquely Japanese adaptation, but it might have been inspired by the statement in the Shan Hai Jing that the creature is found on a southern mountain bordering the sea.

Xingxing

The xingxing (xīng xīng; ) written shengsheng (shēng shēng; ) in older writings is found in a number of pieces of Chinese literature, dating back to several centuries B.C.

Shan hai jing The shengsheng or xingxing (), also given the English-translated name of "live-lively" are mentioned in three passages of the Shan Hai Jing ("Classic of Mountains and Seas").

According to Book One, or Classic of the Southern Mountains the shengsheng resembles a yu () or long-tailed monkey, but has white ears. It is said to crouch while walking, but to be able to run like humans, and eating it imparts quick-running ability. It is said to inhabit Mount Zhaoyao 招摇之山 or "Mt. Raiseshake", which is the first peak of Queshan 鵲山 or Mount Magpie [range].

Elsewhere:

The Chinese character Birrell translates as "green" (青, qīng) is also used to refer to colors that in English would be considered "blue," (see Distinguishing blue from green in language) and that illustrator Sun Xiao-qin (孫暁琴, Sūn Xiǎo-qín), in Illustrated Classics: Classic of Mountains and Seas (经典图读山海经, Jīng Diǎn Tú Dú Shān Hǎi Jīng) chose to portray the xīng xīng from this same passage as having blue fur.Wang Gong-qi (王红旗, Wáng Gōng-qí), commentator; Sun Xiao-qin (孫暁琴, Sūn Xiǎo-qín), illustrator (2003). Illustrated Classics: The Classic of Mountains and Seas (经典图读山海经, Jīng Diǎn Tú Dú Shān Hǎi Jīng). Shanghai: Shanghai Lexicographical Publishing House. .

Bencao Gangmu The xingxing () is mentioned in the Bencao Gangmu ("Compendium of Materia Medica", 1596), and identified as referring to the orangutan by modern editors/translators. The work's compiler Li Shizhen remarked that xing-xing () was formerly written sheng sheng (), hence, Unschuld emends the authentic pronunciation of "" to be "sheng sheng". Curiously, Strassberg did the opposite, and rendered "" as xingxing.

The Bencao Gangmu describes it as resembling a dog or rhesus macaque (), having golden fur like a gibbon (yuan; ), and white ears like a pig.

It cites Ruan Qian () from the Tang dynasty period regarding the method the Vietnamese locals in Fengxi () county used to capture the xingxing. They would leave straw sandals and liquor by the roadside to lure them; the creatures examine these goods but go away at first, but they return to try on the sandals and drink the wine, at which point they can be captured. When it comes time for the humans to butcher one of them for food, they would push the fattest one among them forward, and weep.

Japanese literature and art

Noh play

The Kyōgen-influenced Noh play shōjō is set in Ancient China, specifically on the banks of the Xunyang River (; present-day Jiujiang) in Morokoshi (唐土; present-day Jiangxi Province).

Plotline A man is instructed to sell wine (sake) at the market to become wealthy. The protagonist (shite) shōjō disguised as a human buys from him in large quantity, but his face never becomes flushed despite the heavy drinking. The sake-seller who has turned wealthy asked his great patron for his identity, and the shōjō reveals to him he is a spirit living in the sea.

The sake seller seeks out the spirit at an estuary by the seaside. The shōjō appears in its true form, drinks the sake, getting drunk and dancing ecstatically, then rewarding the sake seller by making his sake vat perpetually refill itself.

Costume The Shōjō Noh mask with a red tinge on its face, it is worn by the lead (nochishite) playing its part of the shōjō, and used exclusively for this lead role, but nowhere else. The costume of the Shōjō follows an overall red-color theme, a big red wig, and red clothing.

Variant The variant to the Noh play, known by the title Shōjō midare or simply is actually only involves alternate choreography or staging (, in Noh jargon). The usual gets replaced with a special midare dance during the .

Folk art The Shōjō doll was sometimes displayed alongside the red Daruma doll, red paper gohei, etc. on an altar to the during the Edo Period. The Shōjō doll was a hariko (papier-mâché) like the daruma, and the industry for manufacture is said to date to the c. 1700s or earlier (Genroku era). It was considered a lucky item (engimono), placed on the hearth (kamado), and was supposed to contract the pox in place of the family.

The shōjō has also been a popular subject for the Nara ningyō, which is a type of wood-carved doll that is color-painted.

Wakan sansai zue

Terashima Ryōan's encyclopedia Wakan sansai zue (1712) included and entry for "shōjō", with illustration (cf. fig. right). The caption was accompanied by the Chinese pronunciation rendered in katakana (suin suin ), but also claims a Japanese name shōjō (written , lit. "elephant palm"). It is clear the entry draws from Chinese sources, especially the Bencao Gangmu, and its prefacing remarks argues that the beast is actually yellow-furred (as the Bencao Gangmu states), rather being red color as has been believed according to popular notions in Japan.

The opening text proper states that the shōjō is known to occur in the mountains and valleys, in the land of the Ailauyi (, a people in western Yunnan) and "Fengxi xian" ( county) in Jiaozhi (, present-day Northern Vietnam), but the beast occurring in Fengxi, Vietnam was already given in the Bencao Gangmu, as aforementioned. And the local Vietnamese strategy of leaving straw sandals (zōri) and wine (sake) in order to lure the orangutan for capture, is also taken almost verbatim from the Chinese source.

Folklore

White sake

A group of shōjō as sake-loving sea spirits are featured in a Japanese folktale entitled "White saké" published by Richard Gordon Smith (1908). It occurs in an anthology which, folklorist A. R. Wright was convinced, faithfully recorded tales substantially as they were told by the oral sources, whether "fishermen, peasants, priests, or others".

A summary is as follows: A gravely sick man had a dying wish to drink sake. His son searched near Mount Fuji and met the red shōjō, who were having a drinking party on the beach. The shōjō gave him some sake after listening to his plea. Since the sake revived the dying father, the son went back to the spirit to get more sake each day for five days. A greedy neighbor who also wanted the sake became sick after drinking it. He forced the son to take him to the shōjō to get the good sake. The shōjō explained that as his heart wasn't pure, the sacred sake would not have life-restoring benefits, but instead had poisoned the neighbor. The neighbor repented, and the shōjō gave him some medicine to cure him. The father and the neighbor brewed white sake together.

Popular culture

Several plants and animals have shōjō in their names for their bright, reddish-orange color. Examples include several Japanese maple trees, one of them named shōjō-no-mai or "dancing red-faced monkey" and another named shōjō nomura or "beautiful red-faced monkey."Vertrees, J.D. and Peter Gregory (2001). Japanese Maples: Momiji and Kaede (Third Edition). Portland, OR: Timber Press. p. 214. . Here, Vertrees and Gregory translate shōjō as "red-faced monkey" rather than "orangutan." Certain bright reddish-orange dragonflies are named , meaning "red-faced dragonfly.". (Accessed September 18, 2008). Other names with shōjō refer to real or fancied connections to sake, like the fly that tends to swarm around open saké.

In Hayao Miyazaki's animated film Princess Mononoke, talking, ape-like creatures struggling to protect the forest from human destruction by planting trees are identified as shōjō.

Shōjō appeared in a 2005 Japanese film The Great Yokai War.

The Japanese artist Kawanabe Kyōsai, who was also known for his heavy drinking and eccentric behavior, humorously referred to himself as a shōjō.

The March 30, 2012, episode of the television series Supernatural, "Party on, Garth", features a shōjō, although this shōjō appears to have features more associated with the onryō.

Shōjō

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