Refers to the animal lion. In modern Japanese, ライオン is more common in everyday speech, but 獅子 is used in traditional contexts, idioms, and set phrases.
See also: ライオン
The lion roared loudly.
The lion is called the king of beasts.
The lion dance is a traditional New Year's performance.
left-hand guardian lion-dog at a Shinto shrine
Specifically the left-hand stone guardian (often with open mouth) of a pair at Shinto shrines. The right-hand one is called 狛犬. Also related to 唐獅子 imagery.
At the shrine entrance, the lion-dog and the komainu guard the worshippers.
獅子 is the left-hand, open-mouthed guardian lion-dog at a shrine, while 狛犬 is specifically its right-hand, usually closed-mouthed counterpart.
唐獅子 refers to the stylized, Chinese-influenced lion design used in art, whereas 獅子 is the more general term for the guardian lion figure or the animal itself.
獅子 (lion) is pronounced identically to 四肢 (limbs) but has a completely unrelated meaning.
lion (king of beasts)
furious energy; frenzied activity; ferocious intensity
mythical Chinese lion; Chinese guardian lion · artistic depiction of a lion; Chinese-style lion figure
kojishi (Noh mask of a young lion) · lion cub
lion's roar; powerful preaching; harangue
lion tamarin
lion dance
Haplopteris flexuosa; shoestring fern
lion mask · Japanese deer fern
Standard kanji spelling for both the animal and the shrine guardian.
Rarely used kanji form.
From Chinese 獅子 (shīzi), meaning lion. The character 獅 specifically denotes a lion, and 子 is a nominal suffix. The shrine guardian sense derives from the lion-like statues introduced via Korea and China.
pug nose; snub nose; upturned nose
griffin; gryphon
pug nose; snub nose; upturned nose