New Twist on Traditions in the Otaku Mecca Akihabara! Fully Illustrated “Ita-Ema” Will Bring You a Year of Happiness?!

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Jan. 11, 2014 05:00 PST

New Twist on Traditions in the Otaku Mecca Akihabara! Fully Illustrated &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Ita-Ema&rdquor; Will Bring You a Year of Happiness?! 7

New Year’s has passed and things are back to normal in Japan, but I hope everyone reading spent theirs well. Today, I would like to talk about a Japanese New Year’s item called ema and the ita-ema unique to Akihabara.

One of the traditional ways of spending New Year’s in Japan is to visit a Shinto shrine or Buddhist temple between New Year’s Eve and Jan. 3 to both celebrate and make wishes for the new year. This is known as hatsumode, or the first visit.

There are several customs for a hatsumode. One of these is an item called ema. This involves writing a wish on a wooden plaque featuring an illustration of a horse or the animal of the Chinese zodiac 1 for that year and praying for that wish to come true.

Since New Year’s is the beginning of a new year, ema are particularly popular. The amount of visitors offering these prayers as part of their hatsumode is endless. Normally, the wishes for the year are written out, but at the Kanda Shrine in the otaku mecca of Akihabara, things are quite a bit different. How so? Along with the wish, the ema are decorated in beautiful illustrations!

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, please take a look at the different so-called ita-ema for yourself.

There are many superbly done ita-ema, including some by professional illustrators. The illustrations on these ema were carefully drawn in great detail and could certainly be called a work of art in themselves!

Kanda Shrine is a pilgrimage spot for Love Live! as well, so there are naturally ema featuring these characters.

One person had the idea of making the cord of this ema look like reins! Since this year is the Year of the Horse, it should bring good luck!

To top them all are the 3D ema. These are gems that even people in Japan will find hard to believe, but if you take a look at the photos, you’ll see how amazing they are!

The word “happy” is written on the palms of Hatsune Miku’s hands. It’s a wonderful ema that will make anyone who sees it feel happy.

With the popularity of Kantai Collection in Japan, this ema quickly became a sensation. It’s so cuuute.

So what did you think? Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples are popular spots for international tourists visiting Japan. Should you happen to visit, I hope you’ll take notice of the ema. If you visit Kanda Shrine in particular, the numerous ema decorated in illustrations like those in the photos are sure to catch your eye!

Finally, though a bit late, the team here at Tokyo Otaku Mode would like to wish everyone another happy year!

^1^ This refers to a type of quantity and sequential system based on animals such as the rat, ox, horse, goat, and dragon. In the East Asian cultural sphere, it is used to express the sequential order of years, months, days, time, direction, and other matters.

This is a Tokyo Otaku Mode original article.