A Good Sized Hand Painted Wooden Ema: Shinto Votive Plaque

late nineteenth, early twentieth century19" x 28" x 3/4", 48.25 cm x 71 cm x 2 cm This is a hand painted wooden tablet showing a horse and a foal, both in profile, and elegantly painted in a flat, one-dimensional manner. This tablet is called an ema.  An ema is a votive offered by an individual to a Shinto shrine either in petition for a favor or in thanks for a favor received.  Some ema can be very large and hand painted.  They can depict battle scenes, sailing ships or other elaborate images.   This ema shows horses; ema literally means "horse picture," which harkens back to the origin of the ema: in olden days, horses would be offered to Shinto shrines.  As horses are an elaborate gift, tokens showing the image of a horse then became a traditional offering as a painted horse was no way as expensive as an actual horse. This particular ema shows a rich patina from age.  The very limited palette of brown, black and white is darkened from wear and, presumably, from exposure to the eleme