Carved wooden Komainu Japan 13th century.Kamakura period

Very rare pair of guardians (Komainu) of Shinto temple. Representation of a Lion and a dog carved in a resinous wood, probably hinoki. The first representations of Komainu appear at the end of the Heian period and at the beginning of that of Kamakura, they always represent a lion and a dog, it will be only later during the 14th century that the disappearing dog will be replaced by a second lion. The statues are hollow, one of them must contain a ritual magic charge in a cavity because by shaking the statue one perceives a slight noise. Several pieces of wood are assembled to create the statues, this assembly seems to be original and not successive restorations, traces of pigments indicate that the Komainu were painted and the grafts therefore invisible. The sculpture is simple, but powerful, the lion with the open mouth for the A and the closed dog for the Um, as it should be. Under the bases are painted in ink with Chinese characters indicating that these Komainu were: "a religious offering for the kami (God) Sumiyoshi, the third month of the 4th year of the Bun'ei era (1267)". We do not know of any other Komainu dated in this way, we have not had access to the rare examples preserved in Japan to know if they were dated or not. These are remarkable works of absolute rarity.
Height: 42cm and 43cm.