Hajime Kamainu (at Kattamine Shrine Satomiya)

Komainu are pairs of statues of lion-like creatures guarding shrines and temples. Often the pair are similar or identical, except that one of them has its mouth closed, and the other, open.

The types protecting the town Kattamine Shrine are in the Hajime, Izumo Kamaegata and the Gokoku styes. The Hajime komainu were made during the Edo period when komainu were not common. They lack three-dimensionality and look like frogs. It is thought that the stonemason and the priest were both ignorant, and they were built according to hearsay.

In fact, during the nineteenth century an edict had come from Edo instructing all temples and shrines to make komainu and many people throughout the land, not just in Togatta, were unsure as to what they should look like. This has led to the construction of a great variety of types.

The komainu of the Izumo Kamaegata have their buttocks high up and look as if they are about to attack. They are three dimensional and precisely built using kimachi stone from Izumo (present day Shimane Prefecture). Many were built during the Edo to Taisho periods, and spread around the country by kitamaebune, the northern bound trading boats. The Gokoku style komainu have thick limbs with puffed out chests.

 

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梅しごと

まだかと知り得

立つ雀

先を見ればや

社の狛犬

• 佐藤雅宣

 

Working the plums

Wanting to know when

Standing sparrows alight

Looking ahead I see

Towards the shrine Komainu

• Satoh Masanori (trans. Mayu)

 

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Hajime Komainu

A green dragon fly

with black tipped wings alights

upon the haunches

of a dog like a frog with

rows of sharp teeth and a snarl

• Martin Edmond

 

黄金の羽先の

緑のとんぼ

尖った歯、唸り声上げる

カエルのような

犬の腰に

降りる

• マーティン・エドモンド

 

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If We Are Hajme Koma Inu Sculptors

 

We are sculptors in Shrine Zao

If learn to conjecture a life because we got numb and confusing

 

Once upon a time the sculptor made a Shrine guard dog that turned out several centuries later to look more like a frog than a dog

 

We are sculptors in Shrine Zao

If touching things that are uncertain and then as if believing the suggestion

 

Once upon a time people read omens, recited prayers and communicated wisdom to the Beyond, preferring to ask rather than try

 

We are sculptors in Shrine Zao

If craving to joke but lacks humor, when life makes fun of us, we are no desire to laugh

 

Once upon a time the next generation visited and asked whether the face of an old era, dog really like a frog? Are puppies really as cute as tadpoles?

 

We can choose not to become sculptors in Shrine Zao.

If we make a peace with emptiness because knowledge will come to curious humans.

 

• Intan Anggita Pratiwie

 

 

もし私たちがハジメコマイヌの石工だったなら

 

私たちは蔵王の神社の石工

人生を推測することを学ぶなら、しびれ、混乱するからこそ

その昔、石工は神社の番犬を作ったが

数世紀、いうよりカエルに似ていることが判明

私たちは蔵王の神社の石工

その暗示を信じるかのように、不確かなものに触れては

知恵をあの世へ、祈りを唱え、人々はお告げを読みとり、その昔に伝えた

私たちは蔵王の神社の石工

冗談を言いたくてもユーモアがなければ

人生から馬鹿にされても笑う気にはならない

犬は本当に、古い時代の顔、次の世代が訪ねてきて、

昔々子犬は本当にオタマジャクシのよう?カエルのよう?　かわいい？

蔵王の神社の石工にならないという選択もある

好奇心旺盛な人間たちに、もし私たちが虚無と和解すれば

知識がもたらされるかもしれない

-インタン・アンギッタ・プラティウィ　（訳・マユ）