Gargoyle

Gargoyles are decorations on the sides of European buildings, and also used to move rainwater to prevent erosion before gutters were invented for modern housing. They're usually built of stone or metal. Gargoyles in religious depictions are often said to either scare off evil spirits from holy places, or are themselves depicted as evil. Nonetheless, people tend to be somewhat frightened by them.

Gargoyle youkai are, of course, these statues which have come to life as fear of them has gathered.

Gargoyles are naturally adept at earth magic, being carved from the Earth itself, and most can harden their bodies to and back from stone at will, if not also able to petrify things in general.