Return to site

EMA

When you visit shrines and temples, you can see many emas there.

· CULTURE

When people pray for special wishes at shrines, they offer wooden tablets with pictures. That is called "Ema". Ema literally means "a picture of a horse". In the past time, the picture of ema was a horse. It means that a horse was offered to a shrine in the past. In the present time, various pictures are drawn in an ema.

The following steps are the procedure to use an ema:

1 Buy an ema for 500 yen.

2 Write down your wishes on the blank side.

3 Hang it in the shrine.

4 It is kept until next year after a Shinto priest pray for wishes.