Ema (絵馬) are small wooden plaques for wishes and prayers at a Shinto shrine. Visitors write on them and hang them up for the kami, the gods, to read. Racks of ema stand near the shrine buildings, with thousands of handwritten hopes swaying in the wind. People wish for health, love and a safe birth, and above all for success in exams.
Pictures of horses
The name means "picture horse" (絵 "picture" + 馬 "horse"), and it keeps an old story alive. Long ago, people gave horses to the gods as the most precious gift of all. They believed the kami rode horses on their travels. A live horse cost a fortune, so worshippers began to offer pictures of horses instead. First came paintings, then small wooden boards with a horse on them. Over the centuries the boards took on many other designs, but the name stayed. Many ema still show a horse or the zodiac animal of the year.
Writing a wish
Today an ema is a small wooden board with a peaked top, and you buy it at the shrine. On the blank back you write your wish, or negai (願い), and often your name. Then you hang it on the shrine's rack so the god can read it and grant it. This custom is a form of kigan (祈願), a specific request to the gods. Some shrines are famous for certain kinds of wishes. Tenmangū shrines honour Sugawara no Michizane, a ninth-century scholar whom Japan later worshipped as the god of learning. Every winter, students preparing for entrance exams bury these shrines in ema. Later the shrine collects the plaques and burns them in a ritual fire, and the smoke carries 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 custom of offering horses, or pictures of them, to the gods. The custom changed long ago, but the horse lives on in the name.
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祈願 (kigan): "prayer, request," the act of asking a god for something specific. Writing an ema is exactly this kind of request.