Huxian

Water colour on water colour paper

Photo shop to modify various parameters to achieve the effect

297mm*420mm

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The Huxian is a deity in Chinese religion whose cult exists in the northern provinces of China (starting in Henan and Shandong) but is arguably the most popular deity, especially in north-eastern China.
The deity can manifest as either male or female, but is most commonly female and takes the animal form of a nine-tailed fox. She is the equivalent of the Japanese Shinto god Inari Daishin, both collective representatives of fox gods or fox spirits.
The fox god is "popular and worshipped in almost every household in northern China and Manchuria". Henry Dorey records the worship of the fox god in the northern parts of Jiangsu and Anhui. In parts of Hebei, each newborn child has its own manifestation of the Huxian běnshén (guardian deity), usually a boy as a female and a girl as a male. When these boys and girls marry, their patron saints sit together. In his research into the popular shrines and temples in Manchuria, Shunryu Takizawa found a very large number of fox gods being worshipped.