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Stagea? Unicorn? What Does It Mean?

4cfed

By 4cfed,
in Four Door Family & Wagoneers

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4cfed Explorer

4cfed

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Hi All,

Being a bit of an Asian history buff - as well as a car enthusiast and now a Stagea owner - I suppose it is fairly natural (and probably a little academic), that I should start to ponder the meaning of the name Stagea. Not speaking Japanese and being unable to find anything about 'stagea' on the internet, other than - of course - info about the car and some Yamaha musical instruments, I then began to examine the relationship between the name and the 'unicorn' Stagea emblem.

Hence, I have narrowed it down to what I believe is an idea as to the relationship between the name "Stagea" and the unicorn emblem. I'm not going to rave on about it right now, but for those who are interested (and may be even a little bit bored), then an internet search using the terms 'stag+unicorn' and 'sinyou', might provide some further insight.

But who knows? Even though they can be absolutely brilliant engineers, the Japs can also have some really wierd interests or ways of thinking and it might just be much more simple than this. So if any of you guys happen to know the meaning of the car's name and what its relationship with the unicorn is, please tell me or likewise, just post your thoughts about it in this thread.

Cheers ..... Craig

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funkymonkey Grand Master

funkymonkey

Posted
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decode this and your answer will reveal :D

"STAGE" に "Advance" の "A" を組み合わせた造語。 一歩進んだライフステージを提案する意味を込めた。

Basically Stagea was a name coined by combining the A from Advance with "Stage"... indicating a "progressive life style".

4cfed Explorer

4cfed

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Hey thanks, that's a good analysis and explanation of the Stagea name - but I'm still not sure of the unicorn emblem and that it doesn't mean anything at all. It is peculiar only to the Stagea - even to the extent that it has been incorporated into the 'S' symbol, otherwise used to denote Skylines and later model Silvias - or if you want to look at it the other way, that the 'S' symbol has been modified to incorporate the double unicorn head.

I have a complete set of genuine Stagea floor mats in my car and they all have the 'S' double unicorn head (as per the grille badge) symbol on them. Therefore, I am sure that it does have some meaning that is particularly special to the Stagea.

During my web research, I found that the "unicorn" has a more ancient existence in the orient than its Western or European counterpart does, but both still share the same mystical qualities, such as purity and evasiveness etc. The Chinese and Japanese "unicorn" was a female named Chi-Lin or Kirin (respectively). But that is not all, as there was also a male version of this oriental "unicorn".

This male version of the oriental unicorn still had the single horn - but unlike Kirin, who closely resembled a horse - he was believed to bear a closer resemblance to a deer. Hence, we now have the English word for a male deer (Stag) making up part of the name of one of our favourite Japanese imports. Anyway, the male oriental unicorn's name was Sinyou.

Now as legend has it, this Sinyou was a most galant creature. He apparently roamed the ancient oriental countryside, metting out swift and powerful punishment to robbers and other wrong-doers. Thus, he came to symbolise not only pure action, but also justice!

Any other thoughts on this? Am I totally off-track here or am I just missing something?

funkymonkey Grand Master

funkymonkey

Posted
Posted

well according to the japanese docs I've read, it seems the unicorn was a variation of the skyline badge (keeping in mind the older skyline badge looks much like two unicorn badge) and just a design idea not really meant to be related to the name.

Japanese for unicorn-like creature is ikakuju 一角獣 or kirin (kilin to the chinese). Altho apparently it looks more like a giraffe than a typical unicorn...

Evo_Lee Experienced

Evo_Lee

Posted
Posted

Errrr...Kirin is not really a horse or a unicorn unless interpretted by the West.

Kirin is the name of the type of lion (Chinese) [or dragon like (Japanese)] you see during the Chinese New Year festival, paintings usually show no horns. Kirin is said to be the king of all animals or feared under Chinese beliefs as it terrorises them with it's demon look. The Japanese Kirin is perceived to be a dragon like creature. Definitely not horse like if you see old Chinese and Japanese paintings of Kirins in museums.

Read into the Chinese and Japanese Kirin not the interpretted Western definition!

Course all this is open to interpretation, similarly it is said the European dragon flys with wings but the Asian dragon flys with no wings.

To me the Stagea badge doesn't look anything like a Kirin. I used to think it was just a horse or a unicorn as you mentioned :(. I'm sure the Japanese know the difference between a unicorn and a Kirin!

FYI: The "Kirin brewery company" is very famous and old company dating back to 1907...and is owned by the Mitsubishi family, so perhaps they didn't want to be seen as copying or sharing the same logo.

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