A Guardian With Its Mouth Open and A Guardian With Its Mouth Closed Are One Set At Temples And Shrines

The upper photos are from my previous post on my another blog "Yuko Takayama" and the building is a gate of Togakushi Shrine located in Nagano prefecture. The animal statues standing both sides of the gate are called "Komainu" and they are one of the typical guardian creatures for Japanese Shinto shrines. 

One the other hand, the lower photos were taken at a Buddhist temple in the west side of Tokyo. The building is the temple's gate and having two Buddhism guardian statues in it as you can see in the zoomed photos on the right hand side.

Although these structures belongs to different religions, there is a point in common for the guardian statues. In Japan both Shinto shrines and Buddhism temples usually have a pair of guardian statues at the entrances, and one of the statues open the mouth as if it is saying "A" and the other one's mouse is closed as if it is saying "N".

These pair of styles are called "A-gyou (A-style) and Un-gyou (Un-style)" and it is said that they represent the beginning and the end of all things in universe since the two sounds are the first and last sound of Sanskrit. 

So please check pair of guardian statues on the right and left to see the two styles when you have a chance to visit Japanese shrines/temples!

By the way, the two styles have been considered as a complete pair since old times, therefore the abbreviation of these words, "A-Un" is used for a idiom to express perfect combination action by anticipating each other's intentions. It often applies to compliments for a good teamwork.