Illustrated Japanese Culture
絵馬
Ema are votive pictures or plaques offered at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. People use them to ask for something or give thanks. The small wooden tablets seen today share a history with horse offerings, large commissioned paintings and even mathematical problems.
01
A visitor may write a wish on a small plaque and leave it at the shrine or temple’s designated place. Giving thanks is another long-standing purpose. The object is an offering; its picture and words connect it with a person’s concern, rather than guaranteeing a particular result.
There is no one nationwide writing formula. Kanda Myōjin describes writing a wish and name but notes that the format is not strict, and cautions against exposing private information. A hanging plaque can be read by others. Use the designated rack and follow the site’s instructions.
Some small ema are commemorative objects to collect. Kanda Myōjin offers both wish plaques and small Tokyo Ten Shrines mementos. It is therefore worth identifying the particular object’s purpose instead of assuming every plaque must be left at a shrine.
02
The name combines e, picture, and uma, horse. Its background lies in offerings of horses to deities, including recorded appeals concerning rain. Horse figures and boards painted with horses provided other forms of offering. These forms did not replace one another everywhere in a neat, simultaneous sequence.
A wooden plaque excavated at the Iba site in Hamamatsu depicts an unsaddled horse, with a hole near the top for a cord. Hamamatsu Municipal Museum dates it to the Nara–Heian periods. The museum’s display photograph illustrates an early surviving form; it does not identify the first ema ever made.
03
Akishino-dera preserves fragments of horse ema with inscriptions from the Ōei and Chōroku eras of the Muromachi period. Nara City interprets them as offerings of thanks after wishes were fulfilled. They connect painted horses with the act of returning to acknowledge an answered request.
By the Muromachi period, ema subjects extended to other animals and to poets, nobles and warriors. A bugaku dance ema at Itsukushima Shrine dates to 1520. The term stayed in use even when the image no longer showed a horse.
04
From the middle Edo period, Sensō-ji received large ema commissioned from painters. Historical and religious subjects could be displayed in the main hall or an ema hall for people to see. Size is not a reliable way to identify a donor: an individual could give a large work too.
Kiitsu’s 1841 ema at Sensō-ji depicts Karyōbinga, the Buddhist beings associated with music and dance. The painted offering is much larger and more elaborate than a small wish tablet, but both belong to the broader practice of dedicating images.
Sangaku present mathematical problems or solutions as votive tablets. The 1854 example at Yakuō-ji in today’s Nasushiobara was dedicated by Innami Chūgoemon and contains geometry problems. It is mathematical work offered at a temple, not simply a wish to pass an exam.
05
Five ship ema from Sugoroku in Oga were offered at the local Shinmei Shrine during the Meiji 10s and 20s, roughly the late 1870s to the 1890s. Shipowners and captains offered such images for safety at sea. The painted vessels, ship names and donors’ names also preserve evidence of maritime work and connections with Hokkaido.
Some Sensō-ji ema were removed from the main hall during repairs in 1933. They consequently survived the 1945 air raids that destroyed the hall. The temple preserves them today, although they are not on public display. Their survival tells a particular history of storage and war, not an unbroken history of remaining on the same wall.
06
Examination wishes are familiar contemporary examples, while visitors may also add their own drawings. The range of concerns and imagery continues to expand. A picture’s meaning depends on the place and the writer; not every design supplies a general rule about Japanese beliefs.
At Washinomiya Shrine, associated with the anime Lucky Star, a 2008 study recorded character drawings on ema. These could accompany wishes or mark a fan’s visit. The case shows new imagery entering an existing practice; a drawing alone cannot tell us everything about its maker’s beliefs.
Chayamachi Inari Shrine revised its “key to achievement” ema in 2026. Its fox holding a key and phoenix refer to imagery at that shrine. The local explanation gives the motifs a specific context, rather than making every fox plaque mean the same thing.
No. Buddhist temples also receive and preserve ema.
No. It can also give thanks after a wish has been fulfilled.
The practice is linked to horse offerings, later also expressed through models and painted horse boards.
A horse drawn on a wooden plaque with a hole for a cord. The museum dates it to the Nara–Heian periods; it is not evidence of a single invention date.
No. Subjects expanded to other animals, people, stories and many modern designs.
No. An individual donor could commission a large painting.
A votive tablet presenting mathematical problems or solutions.
They had been removed from the main hall during repairs in 1933.
No. Follow local guidance and remember that others may read it.
No. Some commemorative small ema are intended for collecting.