Baku: Dreamcatcher Dreameater

I've had a lot of time on my hands lately because my life has been put on a hold because of Hurricane Ike. Thankfully we have power, but since I didn't have to work today, and everyone outside our door is acting/driving like its the Apocolypse, I'm happy to stay home and work on my art.

A beast in Japanese (originally Chinese) mythology whose appearance is as follows but may vary depending on your source: body of a bear, elephantine trunk, rhinoceros eyes, cow's tail, legs of a tiger, and a spotted coat.

They are known for their ability to devour dreams, and should one call upon a Baku in the midst of their nightmare, it will devour it and the bad luck associated with it will disappear. And apparently the hide of the creature, if you could manage to find one, could be used to cure any disease.

Baku is what the Japanese call tapirs.

[link]

Again, I combined symbols here, a 'Dreamcatcher' being utilized by a 'Dreameater'.

I kinda sorta tried to start a series of unusual Asian mythological creatures, but kind of got sidetracked with other things. These are the others that I've done in the series:

Nekomata: [link]
Foo Dog/ Shishi: [link]
Chan Chu: [link]

The kanji reads Baku which also means 'explosion'. I don't know if there is a distinction between the 2, but this was all I could find.

Posting 2 deviations since I don't like having an odd number of deviations in my gallery