Familiars of Fortune - Lucky Kitsune đź”´ SOLD
Oil, acrylic, fluorescent paint, gesso and gold leaf on hand made mahogany icon board from the Ukraine, 30x30x4cm. Glows by blacklight (see additional images). Comes with signed palette and magatama pendant. Contact us at info@louisemcnaught.com for purchase details
A sacred white Kitsune emerges from the darkness, nine tails fanned behind her, a symbol of wisdom, transformation, longevity and supernatural power in Japanese folklore. The nine-tailed fox represents a being that has reached an extraordinary level of spiritual knowledge, while her raised paw borrows from the maneki-neko, beckoning good fortune towards its keeper. Behind her, the golden halo elevates her to something almost devotional, while the fluorescent pink aura suggests an energy that cannot quite be contained within the physical animal. Around her neck hangs a magatama pendant , the ancient curved Japanese jewel associated with spiritual protection, sacred power and good fortune, and one of the three Imperial Regalia of Japan.
At her feet grows golden rice, an ancient emblem of abundance, prosperity, fertility and sustenance, historically so precious in Japan that wealth itself was measured in rice. The plaque bears 招福 shōfuku, meaning “inviting/calling in good fortune,” reinforcing the Kitsune as a living talisman for prosperity. But fortune here isn’t entirely gentle: lightning tears through the darkness, bringing the element of tension that runs through my work and hinting at the original story of Maneki-neko where she beckoned to a Samurai under a tree that gets struck by lightning when he moves towards her, thus she saved his life. It’s also a symbol of sudden change, divine energy and the unpredictable moment in which everything can transform. Above, the star-filled night suggests the unseen and infinite, while the meeting of darkness, gold and electric pink places the Kitsune somewhere between the earthly and the otherworldly: a guardian of transformation, abundance and the strange forces that alter the course of our lives.
