Daishoin: Niomon Gate 大聖院：仁王門

Official explanation

The Niomon, or gate of the guardian kings, marks the entrance to Daishoin and separates the sacred grounds of the temple from the secular world. The two fierce-looking guardians keeping watch over the doorway are believed to ward off evil and to protect the temple from harm. The guardian on the left is depicted with his mouth open, pronouncing the letter “a” (the first sound of the Sanskrit syllabary), while his partner, who is seen speaking the syllable “un” (the last sound in Sanskrit), has his mouth nearly closed. This combination of letters represents the sum of all things, and is the Buddhist equivalent of the way the Greek letters alpha and omega are used in Christianity. The original Niomon at Daishoin was lost in 1887 when a fire burned most of the temple’s structures to the ground. The current version was built entirely from Japanese zelkova wood in 1939.

出典: 地域観光資源の多言語解説文データベース（観光庁） — www.mlit.go.jp/tagengo-db. この英語解説文は観光庁の地域観光資源の多言語解説整備支援事業で作成しました。
Source: Japan Tourism Agency, Multilingual Explanation Database. This English text was produced by the Japan Tourism Agency's multilingual explanation project and is shown unedited. Opening hours and services may have changed since it was written.