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Shōjō

Japanese sea spirit / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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

Sh%C5%8Dj%C5%8D.sake-cup.ladle.and.sea.detail.jpg
A shōjō standing on a giant sake cup, and using a long-handled sake ladle to pole through a sea of water or sake; detail from a whimsical Edo-period painting.

Some Western 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 stating this orangutan could be found on a particular seaside mountain. And liquor-drinking was always associated with this beast in China since antiquity.