What is the significance of roof charms outside of the Forbidden City?

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I'm a specialist of Japan not China but many influences including architecture came from China to Japan. Japan, South Korea and China all had their own long architectural histories. In addition to the information on roof charms already supplied, various symbols were used there for the protection of buildings. In particular is it typical to see ornamental roof tiles representing water and mythical or fearsome beasts (e.g. shachihoko and onigawara) to protect the building from fire (and other calamities). Most of these buildings are wooden with ceramic tile roofs. Horyu-ji in Nara offers some examples of elaborate roof decoration, especially the building called Kondo.

See: onigawara (ogre tile) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onigawara; Horyu-ji temple in Nara, Japan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C5%8Dry%C5%AB-ji (horyuji)

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