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TALES FROM HISTORY
How the Wild Boar Became Divine
The story behind unusual Shinto shrine guardians
Visitors to shrines in Japan are usually greeted by a pair of fierce statues, koma-inu, on either side of the entrance. Koma-inu, lion-dogs, have been guarding shrines and temples in Japan since the 6th century, when they came along with Buddhism to Japan from China as shishi, or guardian lions. Over the years they developed into the distinctively Japanese lion-dog statues we see today.
Koma-inu come in pairs: one with an open mouth, a-gyo, and one with a closed mouth, un-gyo. A and un are the first and last letters of both the Sanskrit and the Japanese alphabets, representing the beginning and ending of all things, not unlike the Alpha and the Omega in Western tradition.
If you visit one of the over 30,000 Inari Shrines in Japan, you will see fox guardians. There are a small number of shrines guarded by tigers, and even fewer guarded by wild boars, koma-shishi. Not to be confused with the Chinese shishi, or lions, this word shishi is from the Japanese inoshishi, or wild boar.
