Japan 2018
Travels to Yokosuka, Nikko, Kyoto, Kamakura, Hakone and Mt. Fuji area. Please respect my work and do not take screenshots for your own purposes and do not paint my photographs as your own artwork. If you have an interest is purchasing a print or using an image for commercial or personal purposes, please contact me. Thank you.
Read More
Fushimi Inari Shrine (伏見稲荷大社, Fushimi Inari Taisha) is an important Shinto shrine in southern Kyoto. It is famous for its thousands of vermilion torii gates, which straddle a network of trails behind its main buildings. The trails lead into the wooded forest of the sacred Mount Inari, which stands at 233 meters and belongs to the shrine grounds.
![Ema (絵馬, lit. "picture-horse") are small wooden plaques, common to Japan, in which Shinto and Buddhist worshippers write prayers or wishes. The ema are left hanging up at the shrine, where the kami (spirits or gods) are believed to receive them.[1]:25 Typically 15 cm wide and 9 cm high, they often carry images or are shaped like animals, or symbols from the zodiac, Shinto, or the particular shrine or temple.[1]:26 In ancient times people would donate horses to the shrines for good favor; over time this was transferred to a wooden plaque with a picture of a horse, and later still to the various wooden plaques sold today for the same purpose.[2]:154 Once inscribed with a wish, Ema are hung at the shrine[3]:49 until they are ritually burned at special events, symbolic of the liberation of the wish from the writer.[1]:35](https://photos.smugmug.com/TravelOutsidetheUS/Japan-2018/i-rFbRNpQ/1/b878756e/Ti/JPN_4770a1-Ti.jpg)
