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Avengers, Bronze, Décor, dogs, exterior, female, Fo, Foo Lions, Fu, furniture, furniture history, granite, history, imported furniture, imports, interior design, iron, Iron Man, Iron Man 3, lions, male, marble, pottery, yang, yin, yin and yang
Bronze Chinese Guardian Foo Lion Statues
Western culture calls them Foo Lions. Shishi in Chinese, imperial guardian lions reflect eastern thought via pre-modern representations of the lion. Traditionally, the couple guards palaces, imperial tombs, government offices, temples, and aristocratic homes. In antiquity and some modern traditions, people believe the statues to have mystical protective benefits. MBW Furniture offers a great selection of Foo Lion and bronze statues. Recently, the Foo Lion Statues featured above were purchased from MBW to appear in the upcoming Iron Man 3, the latest installment in the Iron Man franchise.
Customarily, artisans carve the lions from decorative stone like marble and granite or cast them in bronze or iron. Historically, the lions were so expensive to produce that they became a status symbol for the exterior of homes. Today, thanks to mass production and industrialization, less expensive lions are made with concrete and resin.
Small Cast Bronze Foo Lion Statues
Most always made in a pair, one lion is female and the other male to represent yin and yang, a manifestation of balance. In traditional foo lions, the male has a ball that represents the world, and the female restrains a mischievous cub. It is said that the female guards the building’s exterior while the male guards the building and its interior. Sometimes, one lion’s mouth is open and the other closed. In Chinese traditions, this mimics the enunciation of the sacred word, “om.” In Japan, the male is inhaling to represent life, and the male exhales to represent death. Many Western versions of foo lions are stylized, varied, and sometimes identical.
English and other Western languages have called the lions by many names: Fu Dogs, Foo Dogs, Fu Lions, Fo Lions and Lion Dogs. The term fu is quite close to words that mean “Buddha” or “prosperity” (佛pinyin: fó or 福 pinyin: fú) in Chinese; however, in their native land, the lions are rarely called fó or fú and never named “dogs.”