For me, the concept of "Mother & Child" can, and should be, applied to any [recognized] common threads which can be identified when journeying through countless belief systems. These "commonalities" are quite numerous, and can easily be encountered when comparisons of religious systems of belief are placed side-by-side. However, the sacred imagery associated with a given (even iconic) religious symbol...such as the "Mother & Child"...is, for me, not necessarily intended to be so rigid a pronouncement that the sacredness of other esteemed and divine deities revered by practitioners of other belief systems (the demigod-hood of the Ainu Brown Bear, in this instance) should be reflexively dismissed with either disdain, mockery, or scorn.

As most who know me are aware, I accept as probably "true" that everything in this kind of world is, quite literally, a reflection of everything else. It's only when personal value judgments are levied upon this or that - that assumptions of superior/inferior, good/evil, etc. are contrived and held so dear. A shame...

This Magnificent Belief System Spawn of the Ainu Brown Bear with Cub is approximately 16 inches tall and masterfully rendered from a single piece of wood.