The Spread Shot of Aunn Komano from the world where the four seasons are in total disarray (a Touhou LW original). She recalls the time she spent serving as a komainu at Moriya Shrine. There is currently no true data stating that Aunn ever guarded Moriya Shrine. However, she claims to have quietly watched over various shrines and temples, so she may well have been at Moriya Shrine or at Myouren Temple without anyone noticing. After all, it took people a while to notice she was at Hakurei Shrine. Shrines and temples are filled with stone statues. What's one extra? Still, the fact that she stealthily switched locations is impressive.

The Focus Shot of Aunn Komano from the world where the four seasons are in total disarray (a Touhou LW original). She recalls the time she spent serving as a komainu at Myouren Temple. But the question is: did Myouren Temple ever have komainu? It probably did. The tradition of having komainu came from temples to begin with, long before shrines adopted it during the Shinto-Buddhist syncretism period. Even so, there aren't that many temples that still have them today. In a way, komainu have wandered across religious boundaries. Does that mean they have some hidden ability to warp? Dogs were the first animals to go into space, so maybe komainu really do have a talent for crossing into other worlds.

A Spell Card of Aunn Komano from the world where the four seasons are in total disarray. A dog dashes across a spring courtyard, leaving curly dog fur spinning through the air. Komainu, statues of lion-like creatures, originally came in pairs. Their origins trace back to somewhere on the continent of Asia, North Africa, or the Middle East. All three regions are widely known as paradises for divine beasts.

A Spell Card of Aunn Komano from the world where the four seasons are in total disarray. This is a pair attack performed by one. The komainu are descendants of divine beasts that traveled long and far across the Silk Road and other land and sea routes. The word A-Un is the transliteration in Japanese of the Sanskrit syllable Aum or Om. The original Sanskrit term is composed of two letters, the first and the last of the Sanskrit alphabet. Together, they symbolically represent the beginning and the end of all things, and by extension, everything in between. It makes perfect sense, then, that in Gensokyo, Aunn is linked to Hakurei Shrine at the eastern edge where the Sun rises, and to the season of spring. Spring completes the cycle of the four seasons, just as sunrise completes the cycle of morning, noon, evening, and night. And because the Silk Road links one end of the world to the other, Aunn can even be seen as a symbol that binds the world as a whole.

The Last Word of Aunn Komano from the world where the four seasons are in total disarray (a Touhou LW original). A Mobius loop attack in which the beginning and the end are seamlessly bound together. The space between the two figures that make up a komainu pair is said to be a path that leads straight to the gods. This space functions like a conduit between two opposites, like the north and south poles of a magnet, or positive and negative electric charges. It's a spiritually charged line, much like a linear rail that guides energy in a fixed direction, or a warp gate that instantaneously connects distant points. In some rare cases, there's a statue of a third beast that stands between the komainu pair at the starting point. That beast is known as a qilin. And it's not just any qilin, but one with wings. In a sense, the statue is a symbolic culmination of the fusion between East and West.