Komainu

These are Komainu. ("ko-mah-e-new", but sounds more like "ko-my-new" when said quickly) They are shrine guardians, warding off evil spirits. They come from China by way of Korea, and in fact komainu simply means Korean Dog. At one time the one in the foreground with his mouth open was called shishi (lion) and the one in the background with his mouth closed was called komainu, but these days we use komainu for both. Sometimes people refer to them by the mouth position, so A or AN for the guy with an open mouth and UN for the closed mouth. This so-called a-un posture symbolizes the "alpha" and "omega" of the Sanskrit alphabet, or the beginning and the end of the universe.

Komainu statues often follow the same basic form of a dog/lion, but there is an incredible amount of variation in how they are represented.