Need help with Foo dog/KARA SHI SHI DOG or Lion

If anyone knows anything about this figure I would really appreciate hearing about it. As you can tell from the title I don't even know what it is! But I think it's very cute, and since it seems to have a mark on it I am hopeful I may be able to learn what it is. Thanks SO much!

https://i.servimg.com/u/f72/18/52/72/17/_dsc9114.jpg

https://i.servimg.com/u/f72/18/52/72/17/_dsc9115.jpg

https://i.servimg.com/u/f72/18/52/72/17/_dsc9116.jpg

You're right it's a Shi Shi Foo Dog, with a turquoise glaze and what looks like Chinese character marks, (although it might be Japanese).
I'm afraid I can't read Kangi, but you could check out the website gotheborg.com which has a list of chinese and japanese marks.

A lot are made for tourists, but this isn't a form I recognise so it might be older. Might be late 1800s if you're lucky.

Thanks for the info! I went to gotheborg.com, and Wow! they do have a lot of marks! I spent hours looking, but did't find anything that matched.

Anyone out there read Chinese or Japanese? It would even be a help to know which of those it is!

Because it's in the form of a seal I believe it's Chinese (Japanese tends to be separate characters) but I'm afraid I can't read it.
May have been made for sale to tourists/Buddhists visiting Tibet.

gothebory is a good start if you want to start collecting... but Chinese have lot of marks which has been use over the year.. your best bet is to take it to an auction house around your area.. because it looks quite old to me or perhaps the pictures, it can be very collectible trust me :).. in as much is Chinese and dates from the 18th or 19th century then you might have a sleeper with you.

Thanks for the info and the suggestion! I don't know of any good auction houses in memphis, but I'll ask around. Otherwise I might send photos to an auction house elsewhere. Any suggestions on that score? Thanks!!

There are no good or bad auction houses across the board it is just whether they have "experts" in a specific field, who really are experts. You probably need to look for somewhere that stages a number of sales specialising in Chinese/Oriental wares.

You could ask gotheborg.com They have forums for posting unidentified marks, but I believe there's a small charge to access that facility.

Thanks everyone for all the good suggestions!