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Say you wish to break up with your boyfriend or girlfriend, say you never want to see your parents or parents-in-law again, perhaps you are hoping for a certain man to break up with his wife, or you simply wish to be able to leave your job. Then there is a shrine for you. In this shrine sits a rock with a hole through its centre. Write your heart's desire on a slip of shrine paper, stick it to the thousands of other wishes plastered to the rock-face and climb through the hole. Your wish will be granted. Strange then that so many come to this shrine to pray for a successful marriage. Or is that perhaps a smart move, a thought for the future. Stony resolve in the face of the thousands of captured prayers from men and women wishing for their lovers to vanish from their lives. A final test?
In all honesty, I was tempted to write the name of a few friends who I thought might need this. A lonely woman was pottering around the shrine, clearly not wanting to leave, but obviously uncomfortable. Likely she wished to hang up one of the votive tablets, but felt concious that we would be watching her.
The shrine was built in 1695 and enshrines Emperor Sutoku. There is an old building that displays 'ema' (votive tablets') from famous people across Japan who have scrawled their hopes and wishes in prayer that they will come true, as well as ema from throughout the Edo period. 'Ema' literally means a picture of a horse, and horses are still the theme of most votive tablets in Japan. Tradition says that a god once rode into the shrine riding a horse. A shrine for marriage that has become the hope of desperate people everywhere.
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