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Decorative Beam-End in the Form of a Kirin

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Beam-End Title: Decorative Beam-End in the Form of a Kirin Material: wood (possibly keyaki) Place of Origin: Japan Date: late Edo or Meiji Period, 19th century Height(in): 14.50 Width(in): 8.00 Depth(in): 24.00 Credit: museum purchase Object No.: 1989.008.003

The kirin is a mythical animal of Chinese origin, dragon-like in appearance but combining features of several creatures, both real and imaginary. This carved architectural ornament depicts only the kirin’s fore-body in a compact manner dictated by the dimensions of the structural members of the building it adorned. Its most prominent characteristic is its dragon’s head, the only part borrowed from that creature. In addition the kirin’s body and limbs are those of a deer, represented here by the bifurcated hooves of the fore-legs that are tucked up under its lower jar. With its single horn and vaguely equine form, the kirin is sometimes compared to that horned creature of Western myth, the unicorn. The kirin, though, also has the mane of lion, as understood in East Asia, while flames issue from its haunches. On this ornament the mane is handled typically like that of shishi, the fanciful East Asian depiction of the lion, dominated by its tight curls; the kirin’s ears are also the dog-like variation usually given to shishi. Below this curly mane, tongues of flame can be seen darting rearward.
This piece is probably from a structure associated with a Shinto shrine. Structural elements of shrines came to be sculpted in this manner during the Edo Period (1600-1868) after the resplendent example of the Tōshōgu shrine and mausoleum of the first Tokugawa shōgun, Iyeyasu (1542-1616). The complex was completed in 1646. Although no local shrines built after Tōshōgu could claim the same extravagance of decoration, the motifs selected for their ornamentation closely followed those employed at Iyeyasu’s mausoleum. Favored were shishi, dragons, baku (elephant-like creatures of Chinese myth said to devour bad dreams), and kirin, used for sanctuaries, gates, worship halls (haiden) and other structures, if they existed (most local shrines consisted of no more than two sanctuaries alone). Ornaments such as this served as the ends of horizontal beams that passed through supporting posts or appeared to. In fact, they were attached to the side of a post opposite the point of contact with the actual beam, only appearing to be an extension of the beam.