Onigawara
The scary creature on the roof is an ‘oni’, a Japanese ogre. Temple roofs are often ornamented with these ogre tiles (onigawara) and also with small round hanagawara, i.e. tiles with floral designs. The roofs of Japanese temples are intricate works of very fine craftsmanship. See for example the small roof on the photo of an earlier blog post: Shades of green with streaks of yellow.
Photo of the week: Roof at Daitoku ji, Zuio-in, Kyoto, Japan 2008
καιρός remembered 