The unusual guardian of Kurama-dera

Visiting the Kurama-dera temple from Kyoto, you will surely notice the statues located in front of the main hall. Usually, this kind of statues can be found in front of the Shinto shrines. They represent guardians, protecting the shrine against evil spirits, can represent various creatures like lions, monkeys or foxes and the rule is that there's always a male and a female.

What is unusual here is that Kurama-dera is a Buddhist temple - and the animal represented by this statue is also unique, looking like a fantasy version of a tiger or a leopard....