Deep North

"While hunting, night is falling
So from the Weaver Maid
Let us beg lodging
For to the Riverbank of Heaven
Have we come!"
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– Ariwara no Narihira, Heian Poet (825-880 AD)
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A Samurai war party ventured too far North, and encountered an Emishi warrior who invoked the powers of Horkew Kamui to defeat them.
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The Heian Era was a time of turmoil in Japan. The newly outfitted Samurai cast adopted the warring methods of the mighty Emishi horseback archers of northern Japan, in a bid to hunt them down and unify the land under the imperial banner.
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The Emishi themselves were the ancestors of the Ainu ethnic of present day northern Japan, and trace their mythical origins to a wolf god named Horkew Kamui, the "Hunting God".
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This illustration is part of my monthly Patreon art course:
https://www.patreon.com/azorastudio