Ema no Kitsune

Drawn with Castell pencils and Castell pastell pencils on thick scetch paper. I just gave the signs accents with red ink. The complete picture was done traditionally. I'm pretty happy to draw more traditional stuff again. The work was somewhat relaxing and meditational

Background:
An Ema is normally a small wooden plaque, where someone inscribes prayers or wishes. It is hanged up in a shrine to offer them to the dedicated shrine kami (god or spirit), bidding them to let your wish come true. It often bears pictures of Shinto mythology or animals (or both). This one's inscribed with Japanese Kanji signs. These are not read Chinese, cause in Chinese the signs have different meanings. My Kanji is more than crude, so I hope I didn't do something terribly wrong

The fox on the Ema is a Kitsune, a multi-tailed fox spirit of Shinto mythology. The older it gets, the more tails it becomes. Up to nine, one for every 100 years it lives. After reaching 1000 years, it becomes ascended and is called a Tenko. This one has four tails and it's female. She's called Hitsuki, what roughly means "fiery moon". She bears markings in red, what is dedicated to Inari Okami, the kami of foxes, general prosperity, fertility, worldly success and some more. Here fox spirits are good-willed and benevolent, what are not attributes of fox spirits in general. They also can be mischievous, tricky and evil. Hitsuki is a guardian spirit, holding a little O-mikuji, a sacred lot generally bearing a good or bad blessing. The Kanji letters on it just tell the name O-mikuji, to symbolise that she's able to grant blessings. The bigger letters tell the type of wish/blessing and its purpose one wants to receive (hope so ). I won't translate them and keep the wish a mystery


Hitsuki no Kitsune © by me
Please do not use without permission