This lion at Portland Japanese Garden was guarding the entrance to the gardens. This statue shows a female with a lion cub under her paw. These statues represent protection and compassion.
They are known as komainu in Japan. In other parts of the world they may be called Fu Dogs or Foo Dogs.
One of the places we like to visit (Allerton Park) has a bunch of Fu-Dogs lining one of their gardens – always enjoyed running past them.
Cool! I never knew what they represented until I looked it up for this post.