Category: Urban Essays
Koma-inu
‘Koma-inu’ are stone guardian dogs placed at the entrance to a shrine. I’ve seen many koma-inu without any thought since I was a child, but now I notice they have much more variety and depth than I thought.
To tell the truth, I noticed them after Chris started to take their photographs when we go to visit shrines. It might be only natural – because they shouldn’t be mass produced – but (I guess) there are no two exactly the same.
Their appearance might depend on who carved them, so their faces, body shapes, decorations, or the curl in their hair are all different. There are koma-inu with mild atmospheres and there are others like fierce lions from Continental Asia. And we usually see the ‘sitting’ style, but I heard they are ‘tails-up, heads-down’ in the Izumo area.
I think old weathered ones are more attractive. We often see ones with their edges rounded so much they look like Godzilla or dinosaurs or snakes. Sometimes we see old shapeless koma-inu remains pushed to the back or side of a shrine, and new ones put out at the front: the old ones have simple curves and a light atmosphere. The people who installed the new ones probably thought that new is better and replaced the old ones; but we spectators are disappointed.
The other day, too, Chris took photographs of koma-inu: at a Tenman shrine on the way to Dazaifu Fureai Cultural Hall, which had an exhibition of photographs taken by Okamoto Taro, in 1957, of Buddhist images at Kanzeonji-temple. I was just waiting without doing anything special while Chris tried to take some photos. It was sport festival season, and it seemed there was one underway at an elementary school nearby. We could hear a teacher’s muffled announcements from somewhere. I heard it and idly thought that teachers and pupils both may be having a tough time under the strong sunshine. Then I recalled that we heard what was probably a sports festival being held the last time we visited the same Cultural Hall some years ago.
–YS, 10 October 2005
10 October 2005
