At shrines, people write wishes on wooden plaques called ema and hang them up. That may be the most familiar place where art and prayer overlap.
Originally, it was a living horse
Since ancient times, the gods were believed to come down to the human world on horseback, and the sacred horses offered to shrines were called shinme. Around the Nara period, there was a custom of offering living horses when making a prayer. The Engishiki records that a black horse was offered when praying for rain, and a white horse when praying for clear weather.
However, only people of high status with the wealth to keep horses could offer living ones. So people began substituting umagata, horse figures made of wood, clay or straw, and eventually ema, horses painted on boards, became the main form. The word "ema" appears in the Heian-period Honcho Monzui, in a record from 1012.
From horses to every kind of wish
Ema originally showed horses, but over time all sorts of pictures came to be painted on them: festival scenes, zodiac animals, recovery from illness, progress in the arts. As the forms of wishes grew, so did the designs.
Writing things out puts them in order
An ema is an offering to the gods, and at the same time an act of "letting a wish out." Taking what is in your head, writing it by hand, and hanging it where it can be seen.
In the field of mental health, it is said that writing your thoughts out on paper helps sort out your feelings. The ema is a tool that has been doing just that for hundreds of years.
When I paint a commission, too, I listen to the wishes of the person who asked me and turn them into color and form. Whether it is written on a board or held in a frame, in the sense of "making a wish visible and keeping it close," I think it is continuous with the ema.
Mermaid nao's commissioned art is work that holds your wish in a single painting.
Sources
Association of Shinto Shrines official (Visiting a shrine: Ema)
nippon.com (The history of ema: passing exams, love, safe childbirth... entrusting wishes to small boards)
All About (What is ema? Origins, how to write one, and tips for wishes)
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