Votive plaque (ema) with the presentation of horse to a shrine

This large wooden plaque is an ema: a votive painting offered to a shrine or temple in fulfillment of a vow. In ancient times, it was customary for wealthy families to present horses to the kami, or native gods, along with prayers for honoring their requests. Painted ema, literally "horse pictures," later replaced expensive live animal donations.

Here two white-robed attendants deliver a spirit horse right to the doors of a shrine. Around them are colorful details of life around 1757, the date inscribed at far left. Behind the horse a townsman scoops water from a basin for ritual cleansing—first hands, then mouth— necessary before approaching the gods of the shrine. Climbing the steps, a samurai turns to speak to his servant, while worshippers kneel in prayer on the veranda. Three women in fashionable costumes visit the shrine with children in tow. The nursing mother among them is an appealing symbol, found in other ema, of prayers for ease in childbirth and plentiful breast milk.

A paper strip affixed to the back of the panel attributes the painting to Ishikawa Toyonobu, an artist famous for woodblock prints of beauties and actors, and states that the plaque came from the Chichibu shrine in Saitama prefecture.