Health-Related Votive Tablets from Japan

Many Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples in Japan sell illustrated wooden votive tablets, known as ema, which provide space for handwritten prayers or words of gratitude and are intended to be left at the sanctuary. This, the first book in English on the topic, reproduces hundreds of contemporary ema designs meant for health-related purposes and places them in their proper religious and medical contexts. It will appeal to anyone interested in Japanese culture or non-Western medicine.