A Thousand Prayers
Uploaded: November 20, 2008
Just one of the many racks of ema at the Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto, Japan. Ema are wooden prayer tablets that you buy for a small donation at Japanese shrines and temples. (Originally, they were Shinto, but they became so popular that Buddhists adopted them too.) On one side, you write your prayers – or thanks for prayers answered – which are carried to heaven by the wind.
Ema means “picture horse.” That’s because long ago, horses were often presented as gifts to Shinto shrines. Keeping these equine offerings was pretty impractical, however. So they were replaced by large, expensive pieces of art. These were still beyond the means of most people. So over the years, ema became much smaller and cheaper.
Ema still carry a picture on one side. Sometimes it’s the traditional horse, sometimes the animal of the year in the Asian zodiac, sometimes a temple crest or some other image. (I have even seen ema with risqué pictures on the Internet.)
Stefania Barbier
November 21, 2008
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