Patrick - Arts - "Wishes from Around the World"

At almost every shrine in Japan there is a place where people can purchase 'ema'. On these little blocks of wood people write their wishes and leave them at the shrine so that the local deity (In this case Benzaiten, one of the seven lucky gods), will hopefully help you to achieve your goals. After leaving my own wish on the board I stopped to look at all of the other requests that were hanging up. These ema were an interesting insight into the problems and aspirations of people living in the area (amusingly, towards the end of the year most ema were from students wishing for help with their final exams). But not only were there wishes from Japanese people but hopes and notes of gratitude from people all over the world, in more languages than I could count. I found it interesting that even though it is a particularly Japanese practice, many people from around the world were willing to give the ema a try.

Name: Stephanie Dawn Patrick
Major: International Relations/Asian Studies
Minor: Japanese
Hometown: Houston, TX.
Studied Abroad at Kanto Gakuin University near Yokohama, Japan August-December 2009.
Photo Taken: October 2009