Welcome all. Ready for another Beautiful Japan shot? Here we go!

In past photos we've looked at a shrine lion, which is typically thought to be the symbol of the Buddha, or his teachings anyways. Here is another shrine lion (獅子 / shishi), along with an elephant. Unlikely friends, eh?

The elephant represents the spread of Buddhism. In India back in the day, elephants were the main way to get around, therefore they are used to represent the spreading of the Buddha's teaching.

I took this at a tiny Shinto shrine outside of a zen temple. Seems weird, right? Why Buddhist stuff on a Shinto building?

It's a long story, but basically sometime after Buddhism was introduced in Japan, it completely took over as the main religion and more or less absorbed Shinto. Great efforts were made to redefine all major Shinto kami as incarnations of Buddhist boddhisatva and much was penned attempting to explain how they went together. This is known as Shinbutsu-shūgō (神仏習合). At this time, shishi started showing up at Shinto Shrines to show that they were being protected by the teachings of Buddhism.

The two religions are officially separate these days, but the signs from when they were one and the same remain.

Anyway, there does seem to be some disagreement, however. That the elephants on Shinto shrines represent the Buddha is in many textbooks on the matter from smart people, and I have been told it by at least two who should know better than me, a zen priest whom I talked with about these things for many years, and a shinto priest whom I asked directly about this. Both agreed.

Yet Wikipedia claims the elephant on Shinto shrines is in fact a baku (貘) which is a mythological creature that eats bad dreams. Something like a dreamcatcher. An interesting idea, but one I have never heard outside Wikipedia. Hmmm.

Regardless, both stories are interesting and will give you something to talk about with your Japanese friends :)