Ema 絵馬

“Ema” [絵馬/えま]  is the wooden board, which write and pray your wish.

HISTORY
“Ema” means “horse picture” in English. The origin of “Ema” was came from the “Shinme”（神馬） event, which dedicate the horse to fullfill one’s wish. This event was started from nara period(710～794).
But, dedicate the horse every year tough and the people who can do this limited. In this reason, people started to dedicate the picture, which horse is drawn at wooden board.
Nowadays, the picture is not only horse but it depends on the shrines.

DESCRIPTION
When you visit Japanese shirines, you can find many “Ema” are setted on the wall.
There are some rules to write your wish into “Ema”.
1. Write your wish on the back side of “Ema”. Horse picture(or other pictures) is the front.
2. Write your wish concretely, that figure to want to become.
3. Write your name and address.
4. Set the “Ema” on the wall.
That’s all!!
Please try to write “Ema”, if you have a chance to visit Japanese shrines 🙂

*All picture in this article is given by “Vida Japonica”(http://vidajaponica.seesaa.net/)