Ema: Written Prayers at Japan’s Shrines
Ema are small wooden plaques on which worshippers write prayers, wishes, and petitions before hanging them at a Shinto shrine or Buddhist temple. The word combines the characters for “picture” (e) and “horse” (ma) — a reference to the practice’s origin in the donation of horses to shrines as offerings to the gods. Real horses were donated by aristocrats and samurai; commoners substituted wooden tablets painted with a horse image. Over centuries, the horse image gave way to shrine-specific designs, seasonal imagery, and zodiac animals, while the practice of writing personal wishes and leaving them at sacred sites became embedded in Japanese religious life at every social level.
Design and Symbolism
Ema are typically hexagonal or five-sided, with a pointed top and a hole for hanging string. The front face carries a printed or painted design specific to the shrine — this might be the shrine’s enshrined deity, the current year’s zodiac animal, local mythology, or the shrine’s traditional symbol. Major shrines commission ema designs annually, and collecting shrine ema is a popular hobby among Shinto enthusiasts. The reverse is left blank for the petitioner’s writing. Size ranges from small (palm-sized, ¥500–¥1,000) to large ceremonial plaques of 30–40 cm (¥1,000–¥3,000) at major shrines.
Writing and Hanging
The convention for writing on ema is: write the wish or prayer on the blank side; include the date and your name or initials (optional but traditional); take the ema to the designated hanging area (ema-kakesho) within the shrine grounds and hang it facing outward on the wooden rack structure (emadana). Prayers are private; they are not read aloud. Some shrines provide felt-tip pens at the writing area; others expect the petitioner to bring their own brush or pen. The wishes are periodically collected and ritually burned at the shrine in a ceremony (otakiage), releasing the prayers to the gods.
Famous Ema Shrines
Dazaifu Tenmangu, Fukuoka: Dedicated to Sugawara no Michizane, the deified scholar — the most popular ema at Dazaifu are written by students praying for examination success. The shrine receives hundreds of thousands of ema annually, particularly before university entrance exam season (December–February). The emadana at Dazaifu is one of the densest accumulations of written prayer in Japan.
Fushimi Inari Taisha, Kyoto: The fox messengers of Inari — deity of rice, business, and fertility — feature prominently on ema here. The fox-face ema, with the petitioner drawing in the features, is one of Japan’s most recognisable shrine ema formats.
Meiji Jingu, Tokyo: Dedicated to Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken — ema here carry wishes related to the imperial virtues of health, peace, and national wellbeing alongside personal petitions.
Ema as Souvenirs
Unused ema can be purchased as decorative souvenirs and carried home without writing on them — the printed shrine design serves as a regional and artistic souvenir independent of its ritual function. Shrine ema designs are increasingly collected by visitors interested in Japanese folk art and religious material culture; some Meiji-period ema with high-quality painted horse designs have become collectors’ items. Contemporary ema are sold at shrine offices (shamusho) alongside omamori (amulets) and omikuji (fortune papers).