Do you remember the guardian statues from my last blog? They are called Komainu and looks like a lion. You can see Komainu in front of Japanese Shrines or Temples. Today’s blog will be about Komainu. I’m pretty sure you will enjoy it. So, let’s get it started….
Komainu the Guardians From Shimo ShrineThey call it Komainu, “Inu” means dog and its style looks like the conbination of dog and lion.One of my japanese sisters once said in the old form of Komainu statue, there were even horns on it’s head. The most interesting thing for me is the different forms of the Komainu’s mouth. From our point of view, we can see that Komainu from the right side is opened form but the left side is closed form. Do you think there is some meaning behind this? Of course it has the interesting meaning of Joy and Luck.
Komainu with the oppening mouth at the right sideThey believe that good fortune comes to our life from the right side , so we should always welcome our luck. But it can leave from the left side, so we should close our left side . And also in Japanese basic letters, it starts with an ” Ah” sound , which you can pronounce by opening your mouth, and it ends with an “Omm” sound, which you can get by closing your mouth. This is the same belief as Komainu’s.
Komainu with the closing mouth at the left sideYou will be amazed when you know that there is the same opening vowel sound and closing sound in the Sanskirt language, the ancient language of India. They believe that it represents the beginning and end of the universe. However, when I confirmed this with one of my Indian friends, he was unsure if that ended in the same “Omm” sound in Sanskirt. Whatsoever, we, Asian countries, have been contacting each other for a long time, so our beliefs and superstition would be similar.
