當敢石：いしがんとう

キャンパスに、ちょうど私が授業を受けている建物の近くに、小西門だけじゃなくて、他に歴史的な物が外で展示されている。その中に、以上の物は私の注意を惹いた。
「あれ？沖縄のあれじゃないか？」と思った。
確かに沖縄のあれだ。物の名前は書いている通りだと思う：いしがんとう。
沖縄では普通に町の中の道角で見掛ける。悪い物を町に入れない為に有るらしい。この石敢當の隣りに説明の看板が有った。中国語だからよく分からなかったけど、一応石敢當は中国の東南部にも有るらしい。台湾の中華系の人は殆どご先祖が福建などから来たので、そちらの文化の影響が強い。昔は海に出かけた商売する大陸の人はよく福建出身だった。だから、台湾に行って住み着いただけじゃなくて、琉球王国にも行って商売などした。

This post may not mean much if you have never been to Okinawa.  I took the picture above right near the building where I have classes.  The stone is on display with a plaque which I couldn't entirely read, but I think it said that these stones are common in Fukken in south-eastern China, across the straight from Taiwan, and where most Chinese descended Taiwanese people's ancestors come from.
The reason it grabbed my attention is that I've seen these before, like a million times before.  They're really common in the Ryukyus.  You see them at street intersections all the time.  (You do not see them in the rest of Japan though.)  They're called "Ishigantou", and they're placed in order to ward off evil spirits I believe.  (The explanation I've always heard is kind of cute actually.  The evil spirits for some reason can't help but charge straight forward and bang their heads at the intersection if an Ishigantou is left there.)
Fukken is historically where a lot of China's outward looking traders and sailors came from, so it's not surprising that their influence would extend to Taiwan and the Ryukyu's.  I'd be interested to see if I ever see any Ishigantou like this just normally on the streets in Taiwan.  I haven't yet, so evidently they aren't as popular here as in Okinawa.