symbols and animals

[Lau]

Hello all,

It's a great forum you have here. There sure is a lot of information. I just logged on because I hope to learn some more about Japan and the Kanji. And so I have a little question.

I've been working on an art project that should represent a unity of strength, courage and wisdom in a bit of a Japanese fashion. A bit like the picture. I was wondering wath the typical animals are that are used to symbolize these things. Google wasn't very clear about it, perhaps you can give me a direction.

Many thanks,
Lau

[pipokun]

A Chinese lion
A Chinese phoenix
A Carp

The lion and phoenix were thought to be legendary animals and the carp was thought be be to become a dragon in China.

Maybe Chinese posters will tell you more about it.

[bluepilot]

Unity of strenght courage and wisdom in a japanese fashion?

Legend of Zelda fan perchance?

Maybe for 'wisdom' you could use the three wise monkeys

There is a famous temple in nikko that features the monkeys, so maybe you could look at the animal designs in that?

otherwise, can't help you much more

[nice gaijin]

I thought that was a snow leopard at the top of the image.

There are actually a number of animals used in Chinese mythology, like the Hairy Tortoise. Just do a search for "auspicious motifs" and you can add "Japanese" or "Chinese" to be more specific.

There is a famous temple in nikko that features the monkeys, so maybe you could look at the animal designs in that?There are a lot of animal designs in Nikko, including the "Nemuri neko," and a carving of an elephant done by an artist that had never actually seen one, and just carved it from descriptions he'd read. Pretty interesting stuff.