Kanda Myojin Shrine and the Anime/Manga "Love Live!" Version of Good Luck Charms

In Japan, people traditionally go to a shrine or a temple and write their wish (or thanks if a wish came true) on a wooden tablet–called “ema” (Japanese: 絵馬), good luck charm –that has a picture of a horse (or sometimes another animal) on the back, and then hang the tablet at the temple or shrine. People long ago believed that the gods rode horses, and so an ema is a way of asking the gods to come and help.

Now in January of 2015, a young boy aged 22 came to Tokyo from Fukui prefecture and visited the Kanda Myojin shrine. At the shrine he saw this illustration of a character from Love Live! on a good luck charm “ema”. Impressed he sent out the word with a snap on various SNS channels and it became a famous good luck charm to the extent that many youngsters started copycat acts at the Kanda Myojin Shrine.