ema　絵馬

KEY WORD :　art history / paintings

Lit. horse painting.　Illustrated wooden plaques given as votive offerings to shrines and temples. It is believed that the custom of donating ema has its roots in the ancient practice of presenting a sacred white horse shinme or jinme 神馬 to a shrine for use in rituals and as an auspicious symbolic messenger of the gods. Later, small wooden statues of these sacred horses were presented as substitutes. These statues were then simplified to images of a horse carved in relief, usually on a wooden plaque. By the late Edo period, paintings on ema came to depict not only the sacred horse but also a great variety of subjects including the Thirty-six Immortal Poets *Sanjuurokkasen 三十六歌仙. Literary records suggest the existence of ema offerings as early as the Heian period (cf. KONJAKU MONOGATARI 今昔物語; 11c), but the custom probably goes further back. Some 12c and 13c handscrolls depict small ema, most often with the traditional horse motif koema 小絵馬. In the late 15c, subject matter expanded to include a wide variety of themes. Around this time wealthy patrons began to present large-size ema, ooema 大絵馬 which were proudly displayed in an ema hall *emadou 絵馬堂 in the shrine precincts. Many ooema from the late Muromachi to Edo periods were signed and dated, thus serving as important biographic data as well as interesting examples of artistic styles of the time. Well known examples from each period include: ema showing Sacred Horses Shinme-zu 神馬図 by Kanou Motonobu 狩野元信 (1476-1559) in Kamo Jinja 賀茂神社, Hyougo prefecture; The Thirty-six Immortal Poets Sanjuurokkasen-zu 三十六歌仙図 by Iwasa Matabee 岩佐又兵衛 (1578-1650) in Toushouguu 東照宮, Saitama prefecuture; and the ema depicting courtesans, painted for Kotohiraguu 金刀比羅宮, Kagawa prefecture by Katsukawa Shunshou 勝川春章 (1726-93). Modest size koema created by artisans are the type found for sale today at shrines and some temples. Usually they are illustrated on one side with either a design related to the shrine or an image of its deity. On the back, a blank space is provided for worshippers to inscribe their wish or a note of thanks to the gods. Most follow traditional format and are rectangular with a roof-like shape above and a knot to tie them to a rack or pillar.

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