The Shishi Restoration Project - Part 1

TP recently acquired a shishi gashira (lion mask) on Ebay for a great price of $150! Normally, shishi gashira can be $2000 - $5000 brand new. It's a little smaller than our current shishi, but still a pretty good size. It was a little dingy too, so I thought it would be a fun project to refurbish it, and it would make it possible for TP to do a two-person shishimai. Also, thought it would be fun to document the process to share with our friends and fans! It isn't quite all finished yet, but we've made a lot of progress so far and wanted to share--so here we go...

Here's the back of the shishi. A small dowel holds the jaw part on the mask.

This shishi also had a tongue attached to the bottom of the mouth. The ears come off too.

In my years of doing shishimai, I have always enjoyed using shishi gashira that has a mouth that can open wide. Unfortunately, this shishi has a small mouth opening, but with a little surgery...we can make the mouth open wider. Here is the jaw as it was before surgery.

Here is the jaw post-surgery. Basically all I did was make an angled cut on the jaw to make more space for the jaw to open up.

Here's the original.

Here's the new mouth opening, increased maybe 1 1/2-2"! Next step...painting--

First coat--Krylon spray paint, fire engine red, with black accent areas taped over. Here's the jaw and the tongue.

With the tape taken off, old black accents exposed.


The whole mask after the paint job.

Tape removed.


After painting black accents and gold teeth.

From the side.

New handle attached on the back of the shishi gashira. Nothing too fancy, but hopefully will allow the shishi person to control the mask well.

Handle taped up with black tape. Next in Part 2, we'll bring in Yuri, who is making a new cape for the shishi, we'll add the hair, and then Shishi #2 will be good to go!