10 things about the Temple Guardians

The shining centrepiece of the Rijksmuseum’s Asian Pavilion are two imposing temple guardians. In late 2007 they arrived at the Rijksmuseum in two massive boxes, each containing one temple guardian. The painted statues came from an antiques shop in Kyoto. Though he knew little about their background as yet, Curator of Asian Art Menno Fitski did know he had to bring these magnificent, impressive statues to the Rijksmuseum. Want to learn more? Here’s our top 10 about the imposing temple guardians.

The job of a temple guardian, as you might expect, is to stand guard

Temple guardians keep watch outside a temple’s gatehouse. Their job is to intimidate and to keep evil away. That’s why their expressions are so fierce.

Temple guardians look foreign to the Japanese

They only wear a loincloth and have their hair tied up in a bun. Probably that’s what they looked like in India about 2,000 years ago. These images later came to Japan via China and Korea.

The temple guardians’ names are Agyō and Ungyō

Agyō has his mouth open to make the sound a, whilst Ungyō makes the sound un. These are the first and last syllables of the Siddham script. Together they symbolize all possible words and knowledge.

Each holds a staff called a vajra

The temple guardians both hold a vajra, a weapon with its origins in India. Vajra means ‘diamond’ and also stands for wisdom. That’s because wisdom is like a diamond: hard and indestructible.

Is Ungyō waving? No! He’s signalling to stop

He wants to ward off evil and protect Buddhism.

The temple guardians’ eyes were painted last

It was only then that they came to life.

The temple guardians originally kept watch over the Iwayaji Temple

This temple is about 600 kilometres from Tokyo. Iwayaji Temple means ‘temple of the rocky cave’.

These temple guardians were produced in Nara

Ever thought of visiting Nara? You should! Up until the eighth century, Nara was the capital city of Japan. You can still find the most important and impressive temple guardians there, in the Tôdaiji and Hōryuji temples.

The Rijksmuseum’s temple guardians are the biggest in Europe

And did you know there are another 150 or so in Japan?

Be nice to these guys!

One of our colleagues stuck out his tongue at the temple guardians. He paid for his mistake. The lights went out and didn’t come back on until he had apologized to them.