Here:s some guardian statues+


The gate guardians at Horyuju (spelling?) temple look particularly threatening. Also, notice that one:s mouth is open, and the other closed. This is because the first sound in speech is pronounced with closed mouth, the last with open mouth. Sort of like *Alpha and Omega*. Because one is sentinal for the beginning, and the other the end, their guardianship is all encompassing.




These guardians are at a small shrine off the Philospher:s path. I forget it:s name now, I:ll look it up later. The shrine was for the rice / harvest. Anyway, I like how they, too, follow the closed/open mouth convention of the above guardians. Today I saw some foxes that followed the same pattern. On a sad note, the toad guardians I saw did not. Though, they did have baby toads riding on them.



I:ll write more sometime when internet time doesn:t conflict with sightseeing time. Hopefully there:ll be something open late in Tokyo... (the only internet access I have now is open 10 - 5PM).