Ch: Fu Lu Shou. A popular deity of wealth (fuku 福), happiness (roku 禄), and longevity( ju 寿), also associated with the Southern Pole Star, nankyokusei 南極星. The origin of the god may lie in the story by Yangcheng (Jp: Yōsei 陽城), advisor to Emperor Wu (Jp: Butei 武帝, 464-549) of the Liang dynasty, which holds that Fukurokuju counseled the emperor to end conscription of slaves from a certain province and thus earned the reputation as a god of happiness in the region. An auspicious subject in Chinese and Japanese painting, he is usually accompanied by a bat and tortoise, and occasionally a stag with a small body and elongated bald head. Fukurokuju is often confused with *Jurōjin 寿老人, but can be differentiated by the animals shown with him. Fukurokuju is included among the seven gods of good fortune, *Shichifukujin 七福神.
