9th April – 卯月
In the shrine, you might realize there are 2 pair of statues of dog alike animals before getting close to the main hall. Those stone or wooden made statues are called 狛犬 (Komainu), and those are believed to guard the shrines from evils just as a watchdogs.
Komainu 狛犬 can be written as 高麗犬, and 高麗 is the old way of calling Korea, it is believed that when Komainu was introduced to Japan from Korea, Japanese thought this imaginative creature as dog.
Those pair could be different animals depending on the shrines, some places you know can be foxes. Unique ones can be cats, octopus, wild bores, whales and even Kappa too. Those were chosen because of the particular animals were closely related to the area of the shrine and worshiped by people.
If you look closely to the pair of Komainu, you will probably see the difference between those 2. As one is opening mouth but other one is not. Nowadays, people just call those 2 as Komainu, but actual name for those are, left side one is Komainu, right side one is called 獅子 (Shishi).
狛犬 (Komainu): left side, closed mouth, generally with horns
獅子 (Shishi): right side, opened mouth, in many case no horns
In Japan, opening mouth is called 阿(A) and closed mouth as 吽(Un). There is a proverb saying 阿吽の呼吸 (Aun no kokyuu), meaning that 2 pairs breath perfectly at the same time. Therefore, those 2 are perfect partners to protect the shrine together from evils.
In Okinawa, there are similar statues located in front of the house called シーサー (Si-Sa-). Those ones are protecting houses, not the shrines.
Origin of Komainu and Shishi story varies and there are many hypothesizes, some says it comes from Egypt, modeling sphinx, some says it was copied from the Buddhism statue as there are lion statue around the foot of Buddha statue in India.
When you go to the shrine next time, have a look at those statues! You might find your favorite Komainu, or even different guardian nimals!
Little Japan Dictionary 