Ema (絵馬) are the small wooden plaques on which visitors to a Shinto shrine write their wishes and prayers, then hang up for the kami to receive. Racks of them cluster near the shrine buildings, thousands of hand-written hopes swaying together in the wind, for health, love, safe childbirth, and, above all, success in exams.
Pictures of horses
The name means "picture horse" (絵 "picture" + 馬 "horse"), and it preserves an old history. In ancient times, horses were offered to the gods as the most precious of gifts, believed to be the mounts on which kami travelled. Because live horses were costly, worshippers began offering images of horses instead: first paintings, then small wooden tablets bearing a horse's likeness. Over centuries the picture opened up to many other designs, but the name stuck, and many ema still carry a horse or the animal of the year's zodiac.
Writing a wish
Today an ema is a small pentagon-topped wooden board, bought at the shrine. On the blank back you write your wish or prayer (negai, 願い) and often your name, then hang it on the designated rack so the kami will read and grant it. The custom is bound up with kigan (祈願), the making of a specific petition to the gods. Certain shrines are famous for particular wishes, and those associated with learning, like the Tenman-gū shrines dedicated to the deified scholar Sugawara no Michizane, are buried in ema every winter as students pray to pass their entrance exams. The plaques are later collected and ritually burned by the shrine, sending the wishes on.
Words & idioms to take away
Idioms & proverbs to carry away
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絵馬: literally "picture-horse," from the ancient practice of offering horses (or their images) to the gods; the horse survives in the name long after the custom changed.
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祈願 (kigan): "prayer, supplication," the act of petitioning a deity for a specific wish, which is what writing an ema performs.