A Thousand Prayers

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... more

by Jean Hall

Title

A Thousand Prayers

Artist

Jean Hall

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

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 risque pictures on the Internet.) As you can see, not all the supplicants are Japanese. One 14-year-old asks in English for "less stress" and more "patience," while another girl wants to be "the best ballerina in the world."

Uploaded

July 31st, 2015