Many Japanese Buddhist temples are featuring beautifully crafted gates enshrining guardians, protectors against the evil spirits. I wrote before about the Niomon gates that are enshrining Nio statues. Another type of gates, the Nitenmon gates are enshrining statues of the “Four Heavenly Kings", four gods watching over the four cardinal directions: Kōmoku-ten, Zōjō-ten, Jikoku-ten and Tamon-ten, respectively the guardians of West, South, East and North.

In this photo you can see the spectacular Nitenmon Gate from the Shibamata Taishakuten from Katsushika, Tokyo, a gate originally built in 1896.

Nitenmon Gate, Shibamata Taishakuten, Katsushika, Tokyo

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Yesterday’s Japan Photo: Horse-Dragon