Guardian Lion Ring 'Komainu'

Guardian lion ring, the temple lion's head with its mouth open and its mane curled

The lion at the temple gate, on a finger. This ring is the head of a guardian lion, the stone beast that stands in pairs at the entrance of every shrine and temple in Japan, with its mouth open, its teeth showing, its eyes wide and its mane in tight curls, and the band worked as its forepaws meeting under the finger. The recesses are darkened so every curl and every tooth has an edge.

It is the heaviest ring in the collection and the one with the most face, and it is meant to be looked at from the front.

The name, Komainu, is the guardian lion-dog, the pair at the gate, and this is the open-mouthed one, the one that says the first sound.

The ring is stainless steel, cast as one piece, the head about 22 mm across and sitting well proud of the finger, the recesses darkened and the high points polished.

Wear it on the index or middle finger of either hand, and on its own; it has no room for company. It goes with the black clothes in the range and with a sukajan.

The mane is the detail: it is modelled as the tight spiral curls of the stone lions, each one a separate coil, and it runs back over the band. The open mouth is the traditional one for the left-hand lion of the pair.

From across a table it is a silver beast on a hand. From close the curls show their spirals, the mouth its teeth, and the paws their claws under the finger. It is the ring for someone who wants a guardian and does not mind the weight.

Every ring in the collection is photographed on the same pale ground at the same scale, so the pages compare with each other: what looks big here is big on the hand. The measurements given are taken across the face, not round the finger.

Steel does not tarnish, does not turn a finger green and does not mind water, so this ring can be worn in the shower and the sea and wiped dry after. A soft cloth is all the care it needs; the darkened recesses are a finish, not dirt, and they stay.

Sizes are given as the inside circumference in millimetres: 56, 57, 60, 62, 64, 67, 70. Wrap a strip of paper round the finger where the ring will sit, mark where it meets, and measure the strip flat. If you are between two sizes and the ring is wide, take the larger; a wide band needs more room than a thin one.