Shachi:amulet

if you are chinese, you can read this word "鯱”  (but maybe pronouce are dilfferent from Japnanese) , we read it "Shachi".

it is an imaginary animal, so there is not English word. and I've heard it was from China.

It looks like fish and very firece, so people were afraid of them. then, old Japanese put their statue on the roof and hoped them to protect from disaster and fire. if you see old Japanese castle, you can find them.

I live in Nagoya-city and there is Nagoya castle which has two golden statue of Shachi. and I've heard male Shachi is on the north side and female is on the south side, that's because male protect female from cold north wind.

Original Nagoya castle was broken out from bombs during word war 2 , then people reconstructioned it again after war. so, inside of this castle was like modern building but outside is like completely original.when i was a little child, I was really ashamed it (because that's inside was made of iron and concrete) , but now I understand people were not so rich to reconstruction completely about all of this castle. I really respect and thanks for them now.