Komainu
Komainu ( Japanese 狛 犬 , 高麗 犬 , dt. Literally " Goguryeo dog", meaning "Korean dog"; also 胡麻 犬 ) are mostly stone guardian figures in the shape of lions, which are in front of or in Japanese Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines to ward off evil spirits were set up.
Koma ( 狛 or 高麗 ) is an old Japanese name for the historical Korean kingdom of Goguryeo ( 高句麗 Kōkuri ) which perished in 668, while inu means 'dog'. The name results in "Goguryeo dog" or "Korean dog" and originally only stood for a special dog-like shape.
During the Nara period (8th century), the custom of a pair of Chinese guardian lions ( 獅子shishi , dt. Lion, or 唐 獅子karajishi , dt. Literally “ Tang lion”, analogously “Chinese lion”) was taken over from China To set up protection. In the early Heian period that followed, the Chinese lion, who was shown on the left with an open mouth ( 阿 形 , Agyō , "A-shape"), was given a Korean dog ( komainu ) with a closed mouth ( 吽 形 , Ungyō , "Un-Form") and partly attached to a horn on the right side.
This distinction between lion and dog soon fell away, although the pairing of lions with open and closed mouths remained. However, the term Komainu has been expanded to include both forms. Such a pairing is also found in the Niō guard figures. Both designate the Sanskrit sounds a and hūṃ , which not only stand for an intonation with an open or closed mouth, but also for the first and last sound in the Sanskrit alphabet and thus also for the beginning and the end of all things (cf. . also Alpha and Omega ).
In addition, the figures were initially made of wood and placed inside buildings - in the Heian period also as weights or stoppers for curtains and sliding walls - or under the protection of a roof and only later placed in front of buildings. In order to protect them from the elements, they then switched to carving them out of stone.
The Komainu des Tōdai-ji should be emphasized, which were made by the Chinese stonemason Chinnakei when it was rebuilt at the end of the 12th century and therefore deviate from the Japanese design language and do not follow the A-Un scheme. These in turn served as models for the Komainu of the Yasukuni Shrine and the Kiyomizu-dera . After the Komainu became an integral part of Japanese culture, there was also a tendency to present them in a humorous form.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d JAANUS: komainu 狛 犬 . In: www.aisf.or.jp. Retrieved September 20, 2017 (English).
- ↑ a b c Bernhard Scheid: Komainu Portraits - Religion-in-Japan. In: www.univie.ac.at. Retrieved September 20, 2017 .
- ↑ a b Shiro Ito: Lion Dogs. In: www.kyohaku.go.jp. Kyoto National Museum , accessed September 20, 2017 .
- ↑ JAANUS: a un 阿 吽 . In: www.aisf.or.jp. Retrieved September 20, 2017 (English).