Most komainu statues come in pairs and are nearly identical to each other with the exception of the position of their mouth: one with their mouth open, and one with their mouth closed. 

Their mouths have significant Buddhist symbolic meaning. The open mouth is pronouncing the first letter of the Sanskrit alphabet, which is pronounced "a", while the closed one is uttering the last letter, which is pronounced "um", to represent the beginning and the end of all things. In Japanese, these two forms are called collectively a-un and individually as a-gyō (阿形) and un-gyō (吽形).

Because [[Komano Aunn]] is a komainu and her given name is Aun, fans have taken to giving her a verbal tic where she will shout her given name in two parts. It can sometimes appear as "A! NN!" or "A! UN!"
a~ un~