Fan Created Tradition: The Votive Prayer Tablets of the Sailor Moon Pilgrimage【Article】

Fan Created Tradition: The Votive Prayer
Tablets of the Sailor Moon Pilgrimage
Dale K. Andrews

Table of Contents
I.

Introduction

II.

Background

III.

Azabu Hikawa Shrine’s Votive Prayer Tablets

A.

Votive Prayer Tablet Research Method

B.

Research PostureC.

Writing Practices

D.

Prayer Content

E.

The Sailor Moon Votive Prayer Tablets

IV.

Creating Fan Tradition

V.

Cited References

SummaryThis article examines the votive prayer tablets dedicated at Azabu Hikawa Shrine. The shrine whichfeatured in the manga and anime series Sailor Moon drew the attention of fans who began a “pilgrimage.” Through an exploration of the tradition carried on by fans of dedicating Sailor Moon votive
prayer tablets, the author suggests considering the importance of visuality in the process throughwhich Sailor Moon characters become cultural icons.

I.

Introduction
In the heart of Tokyo stands the Azabu Hikawa Shrine (麻布氷川神社). Legend states that the

Heian period noble Minamoto-no-Tsunemoto (源経基) established the shrine in the year 942 as theprotectorate deity for the surrounding Azabu district (Ishii 2008, p. 215). Aside from this illustrious
origin, the shrine carries another distinguished history as a site of “pilgrimage” associated with a classic of the manga and anime genres, that being Bishōjo Senshi Sērā Mūn (美少女戦セーラームーン，
hereafter referred to as Sailor Moon per the English title). In this article I will attempt to show that43

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despite Sailor Moon reaching the zenith of popularity in the 1990s, manga and anime fans have kept
the Sailor Moon pilgrimage to the Azabu Hikawa Shrine alive as evidenced through the dedication ofema (絵馬，votive prayer tablets). Perhaps there are numerous arguments to account for why the
Sailor Moon characters have become cultural icons, but by narrowing the focus to a fan generated tradition of dedicating ema, I hope to cast light on the mechanism through which fans, who place value
on visual aesthetics, transform manga and anime characters into objects of adoration.

II.

Background

Sailor Moon plays a celebrated role in the history of manga and anime in Japan. Takeuchi Naoko(武内直子) penned Sailor Moon which Kodanasha Ltd published in the manga magazine Nakayoshi
from 1992 to 1997. As part of the shōjo manga genre, which are manga written by women for girls
that feature female protagonists (Prough 2010, pp. 93-95), Sailor Moon has been cited as being one of
the better known series centering on “magical girl fantasies” in which an “ordinary girl ... becomes asuper-powered heroine” (Brenner 2007, p. 177). Summarizing the storyline, Buljan and Cusack
explain that “five schoolgirls in Japan are the reincarnated Sailor Soldiers of the Moon Kingdom”(2015, p. 72). An anime adaptation roughly paralleled the span of the printed version running from1992 through 1997. Despite being conceived of as a story for younger children, especially girls (Darlington & Cooper 2010, p. 166; Grigsby 1998, p. 59; Yoshitani & Satō 2014, p. 92), the viewing
audience grew to conspicuously include men (Ishii 2008, p. 214). When aired on TV Asahi in theprime time slot of 7 p.m. on Saturdays Sailor Moon garnered the sizeable audience share of 12%(Grigsby 1998, p. 59). The popularity of the Sailor Moon series may be further substantiated by thefinancial success of its creator Takeuchi Naoko, who reportedly became a multimillionaire (Norris
2009 p. 244; Thorn 2001, p. 44). Sailor Moon’s popularity led to a massive consumption of “everything from socks, T-shirts, and hair clips to lunchboxes, umbrellas, and handbags” (Allison 2000, p.
269). Although Sailor Moon’s heyday of the 1990s may be over, its popularity survives in a participatory fan culture that continues to embrace the series as attested by, for instance, the perennial fashionof cosplaying1 as Sailor Moon characters (Lamerichs 2018, p. 195; Rahman, Wing-sun & Cheung
2012, p. 326; Winge 2006, pp. 71-72).
In what is described by manga and anime fans as a seichi junrei (聖地巡礼，sacred site pilgrim1

The wearing of “clothing based on characters in anime and manga” is commonly referred to as “cosplay”, anabbreviation of “costume play” (Kawamura 2012, p. 29).

44

Fan Created Tradition: The Votive Prayer Tablets of the Sailor Moon Pilgrimageage), fans travel to places that are linked to manga and anime such as the real-world locations on
which a story’s setting is based in an effort to foster a deeper connection to the media. Sailor Moonhas played a significant role in the emergence of these fan pilgrimages. Taking the stance that anime
pilgrimages emerged at the beginning of the 1990s, Okamoto hypothesizes that the term seichi junrei
came in to use at that time in conjunction with the visitation by Sailor Moon fans to Azabu Hikawa
Shrine (2009, p. 39).2 In the case of Sailor Moon, various places such as the Azabu shopping districtin Tokyo’s Minato Ward served as models for scenery in the anime (Okamoto 2014, p. 31).3 Deciphering visual clues and other information from the production, fans deduced that one key setting pictured
in the anime was modeled on Azabu Hikawa Shrine. In the story, one of the main characters, Hino Rei(火野レイ), works as a miko (巫女，shrine maiden)4 at her grandfather’s shrine, which is allusively
named Hikawa Shrine (火川神社).5 Ishii relates that from 1993 to 1994 fans gathered in mass at the
Azabu Hikawa Shrine6 on New Year’s Day with a number of males attired in the same skirted school
uniform worn by Sailor Moon characters (2008, p. 215). In apparent recognition of its distinguishedrole, the Azabu Hikawa Shrine currently advertises that it served as the model for the Sailor Moon
shrine (where Hino Rei lives) and moreover that the shrine continues to attract fans who visit as partof their Sailor Moon pilgrimage.7 All things considered, the fans’ relationship with Azabu Hikawa
Shrine has differed from that of ordinary shrinegoers. Ishii explains that for Sailor Moon fans the
Azabu Hikawa Shrine is not the tutelary deity of the Azabu area as it is to local residents, but rather is
Sailor Moon’s Hikawa Shrine, the residence of Hino Rei (2008, p. 215).8

III.

Azabu Hikawa Shrine’s Votive Prayer Tablets

A.

Votive prayer tablet research method
In Japan today, ema (votive prayer tablets) are commonly identified as small, rectangular slats ofwood (technically referred to as koema 小絵馬，literally “small ema”) with one side for writing
However as pointed out by folklorist Yoshitani, the term “seichi” (sacred site) was at that time not yet known tobe conversantly associated with the act of traveling to real-world places connected to manga and anime (Yoshitani & Satō 2014, p. 92).
3
Takeuchi Naoko herself was a resident of the Azabu district (Saito 2011, p. 122).
4
The female miko perform alongside Shinto priests in various rituals and shrine activities.
5
Although the two shrine names are identical in pronunciation, the fictional shrine’s name substitutes the kanji 火
for the Azabu Hikawa Shrine’s 氷．
6
A shrine custodian recounted this situation to the author on July 2, 2010.
7
Azabu Hikawa Shrine [Online] Accessed March 24, 2021. Available at: https://www.azabuhikawa.or.jp/about/
8
Such perceptions are similarly shared by fans of the anime Higurashi-no-naku-koro-ni (When They Cry)
toward the Shirakawa Hachiman Shrine in Shirakawa Town, Gifu Prefecture (Andrews 2014).
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prayers and the reverse side displaying a pre-printed auspicious image. Visitors can dedicate them atshrines and temples by placing them on special racks in order for the prayers to be delivered to thedeities. On July 2, 2010, I undertook a survey of the ema dedicated by visitors to Azabu Hikawa
Shrine.9 At the time of the survey, a small framework of horizontal bamboo poles functioned as a dedication rack for both ema and omikuji (お御籤，written fortunes). Shrinegoers could hang their ema
on the rack by string and attach their omikuji by folding the paper around the bamboo rods. The rack
was small in comparison to those of other shrines as was the number of dedicated ema. Only 31 ema
were found to be displayed on the rack. Using a digital camera all the ema were photographed for
documentation. Afterwards, textual and illustrative information was extracted from the ema andrecorded using Microsoft Excel.

B.

Research posture
I will now present the data extracted from the ema. The primary purpose of this article is to identify

ema related to the Sailor Moon pilgrimage, but as Imai suggests, we can expect that studying fan ema
can further ema research in general (2018, p. 165). Therefore, I will detail various information related
to ema dedication that typically is not presented in research on ema. Specifically, I wish to report notjust the content of prayers and messages, but also to more fully document how text is written down on
the ema. This sort of information has been noticeably absent in the presentation of findings made byother researchers (Iwai 1974; Mabuchi 2001, 2003; Meshida 1967; Morishita 1985; Murata 1985;
Nishigai 1999; Nishiyama 1985; Nobori 2009; Satō & Tamura 1978; Tamura 1977; Yamanoi 1991,
1992, 1994). We generally know what people pray for, but not how the prayers are penned. And if
Matsuzaki is correct that in the future folklorists will no longer be able to peruse the content of ema
due to growing concern over privacy (2020, pp. 13-14), then we must act with urgency to document
how ema are written. Thus, it seems necessary to fill in the historical record to whatever degree possible.

C.

Writing Practices
In principle, minimally, ema only require a prayer. Historically, however, prayers were mainly con-veyed through images. In the modern era, the faithful began to write out their prayers and the content
of those prayers paralleled the symbolic meaning invested within the images drawn onto the ema. This

9

Azabu Hikawa Shrine provides ema to shrinegoers at a cost of ¥1000.

46

Fan Created Tradition: The Votive Prayer Tablets of the Sailor Moon Pilgrimagechanged around the 1970s when the written prayers began to diverge from the imagery on the ema(Satō & Tamura, 1978, p. 168). From that point onward text-based prayer progressively became themainstay.
Shrinegoers who dedicate ema may add information beyond the prayer. Examples include the ema’s
dedication date (i.e., the date of visit to the shrine) and more personal information such as name,address, age, and date of birth. Dedicators may be inclined to write such information with the belief
that it will pinpoint the recipient and thus increase the efficacy of the supplication. In the formal rituals performed by Shinto priests, the name, address, and age of the individual on the receiving end of
the blessing are commonly read aloud to the enshrined deities. There were, however, no instances ofage or date of birth inscriptions discovered among the ema in this survey.
Shrinegoers often inscribe the dedication date on the ema. Of the 31 ema in this survey, 17 (54.8%)
had a written dedication date. All the dated ema were seemingly dedicated on or after January 1, 2010.
Of the 17 dated ema, three were written with the word gantan ( 元旦，the first day of the year, New
Year’s Day) along with the calendar year. Another had only the word gantan, without a date, although
it likely referred to January 1, 2010. Only one ema had the year alone. The remaining twelve ema
were all dated with year, month, and day (the customary ordering in Japan), except for one ema dedicated by a woman from Singapore who dated it day, month, and year. Excluding the ema having only
“gantan” written, ten were written using the Western calendar year and six with the Japanese era
name, which at the time was Heisei. The number of ema dedicated each month was as follows: twelve
in January, three in March, and one in May. The high number in January likely corresponded with thecustom of visiting a shrine at New Years as well as it being the beginning of the school entrance
examination season. It should be noted that the lack of ema from the even numbered months of February, April, and June was likely incidental and does not concur with the data from other shrines(Andrews 2018, p. 25).
Of the 31 ema, 30 (96.8%) had some form of signature. Although a signature is not required, thepractice is widely adhered to. From the signatures on the ema we can ascertain that a total of 37 people dedicated the 31 ema. That is, 28 ema were dedicated by individuals, whereas three were jointly
dedicated. A composite of both individually and jointly dedicated ema shows that of the 37 people, 17(46%) were men and 13 (35%) were women, with the gender of seven (19%) indeterminable. A close
reading of the names revealed that 19 individuals, eleven men and eight women, wrote both their firstand last name using kanji (漢字，Chinese characters) and/or hiragana (平仮名，Japanese syllabary).
Additionally, a woman from Singapore signed her first and last name using Roman alphabet, her Eng-

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lish written ema being the only instance of a language other than Japanese. Two individuals, genderunknown, wrote only their last name, one using kanji and the other hiragana. In contrast, two women
wrote only their first name, one with kanji and the other in Roman alphabet. Also, it would seem thatthree Sailor Moon fans dedicating ema as individuals used pseudonyms, all written in Roman alphabet. Lastly, among the 28 instances of individually dedicated tablets, there was only one instance of an
ema left unsigned, but prayer content and handwriting suggested that it too was dedicated by a single
individual. On the other hand, there were three instances of jointly dedicated ema. A married couple
and two families comprised these collective dedications. Using all kanji, the couple signed in the orderof surname, husband’s name, and wife’s name. A family of three praying for “everyone in the family”(家族みんな kazoku minna) wrote their surname along with their first names using both kanji andhiragana. The other family dedicating an ema had a prayer for “all four members of the family” (家族四人 kazoku yonin), but was signed with only the surname along with the suffix ikka (一家), whichtranslates as “household” or “family,” and thus the gender breakdown could not be determined. The
names as well as the prayers of each of these collective dedications were written with the same handwriting, indicating that only one family member actually penned the messages and signatures. When acollective dedication is written in the hand of a single individual, it may prove difficult to determine if
all members were present when the ema was inscribed and dedicated. In the cases noted above, it isunknown whether all the dedicators were present or not when the ema was written. That said, one
convenient facet of ema offerings is that prayers can be made in absentia.
At times shrinegoers will write down where they come from. It may be as detailed as a street
address, but more often than not it is usually the name of a town or prefecture, or in the case of visitors from abroad, a country name (Andrews 2018, p. 24). In this study, only three ema (9.7%) related
such information. At the Azabu Hikawa Shrine, one male student, who prayed for successful entry
into junior high school, wrote that he was from the city of Yokohama (he also dated and signed withhis full name). Another instance was a local resident of the Azabu district who prayed for long life andworld peace (they signed with only a surname and no date). The third instance was the aforementioned woman from Singapore.
As might be expected, punctuation and symbols were employed when writing on the ema. For
example, six ema (19.4%) had exclamation points to conclude a message or prayer. Exclamation
points were used in conjunction with a prayer for good health (two ema), a prayer for success on an
examination (one ema), and a prayer for better grades (one ema). Additionally, exclamation points
were used to offer someone encouragement (one ema) as well as to voice the words of an anime char-48

Fan Created Tradition: The Votive Prayer Tablets of the Sailor Moon Pilgrimage

acter (one ema). Aside from the use of exclamation points, single sentence text was seen both withand without full stops suggesting that people were free to punctuate as they pleased. One ema’s text
ended with an ellipsis to fill in for the unwritten words “I pray that” in a prayer for world peace. In theend, out of the 31 ema, 14 (45.2%) were written without any punctuation. As concerns symbols, twoema (6.5%) had stars drawn on them. Both were dedicated by Sailor Moon fans. One of these used asingle star to end a line of text and the other drew seven stars in a decorative manner across the ema.
No question marks, heart marks, or other punctuation or symbols, to include kaomoji, were used on
the ema.
Additional points to consider when examining how ema are penned may include writing direction
and coloring. Firstly, the direction of writing on the ema included examples of yokogaki (vertical) andtategaki (horizontal) as well as a combination of both. By the numbers, there were 19 yokogaki ema(61.3%), seven tategaki ema (22.5%) and five combination ema (16.1%). Although these tallies may
appear inconsequential, the prevalence of yokogaki over tategaki and furthermore the mixing of vertical and horizontal writing may be understood to be a contemporary aesthetic. And that four of the fivecombination ema were written by fans or suspected fans of Sailor Moon (as addressed hereafter) hints
that certain folk groups,10 in this case manga and anime fans, may be influencing this aesthetic change.
Comparing with a shrine unrelated to a fan pilgrimage, out of a sample of 547 ema, only 1.5% were
written with a combination of yokogaki and tategaki (Andrews 2019, p. 22). Secondly, as concerns
coloring, the lettering on all the ema was written in black ink using either a marker pen or ballpoint
pen, with two notable exceptions in which the dedicator’s signature was stamped onto the ema with
red ink. Interestingly, these two exceptions were also dedicated by Sailor Moon fans.

D.

Prayer Content
As might be expected, all the ema contained prayers. A total of 39 prayers were found on the 31

ema (See Table 1). Clearly there were ema with multiple prayers. In fact, seven ema (22.6%) had
more than one prayer, whereas 24 ema (77.4%) had only a single prayer making one-prayer tablets
more prevalent. Further examination shows that 17 prayers were made by men, eleven by women, five
jointly by men and women, with the remaining six unknown.
Shrinegoers visiting Azabu Hikawa Shrine wrote out various petitions on their ema. They prayed

10

Providing a definition for “folk groups,” Sims and Stephens state, “Folk groups express and share folklore thatconveys to themselves and to others their understanding of the group’s values, interests, and sense of identity”(2005, p. 38).

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Table 1.

第 187 号

The prayer content of votive prayer tablets dedicated at Azabu Hikawa Shrine
Gender of dedicator

Prayer content

Prayer countMale

FemaleJoint male
& femalePregnancy

11Social relations

2

1

1

Household protection

1

Health8

3

12

Recovery from illness & injury

2

1

1

Academic achievement

11

Graduation & examination

10

6

Extra-curricular activies

1

Athletics

1

Unknown

Altruistic

1
2

1
2

4
1

1

Finding employment

1Work related

1

1

Business prosperity

11Good fortune

2

1

Happiness

1

Thanksgiving

1

World peace2

Blessing for manga artist

1

1

Fan activities

2

2

Count total

39

17

1
1
1
1
2
1
11

5

6

4

for pregnancy (子授け祈願 kosazuke kigan), good social relations (人間関係 ningen kankei, 仲良しnaka-yoshi), protection of the household (家内安全 ka’nai anzen), good health (健康 kenkō), recovery from illness & injury (病気平癒 byōki heiyu), academic success (学業成就 gakugyō jōju), graduation & examination success (合格祈願 gōkaku kigan), success in extra-curricular activities (部活bukatsu), athletic competition success (競技 kyōgi), success in finding employment (就職 shūshoku),
success at work (仕事成就 shigoto jōju), prosperity in business (商売繁昌 shōbai hanjō), good fortune (開運 kaiun), and happiness (幸福 kōfuku). There were also expressions of gratitude (thanksgiving) for blessings received (お礼 orei, 感謝 kansha), which are typically categorized along withprayers by ema researchers. All of these aforementioned prayers can be observed at shrines and temples throughout Japan and may generally be considered common and conventional.
On the other hand, there were some prayers that were less conventional and call for special attention as they may be indicative of a particular type of shrinegoer, who may possess a disparate reason
for visiting Azabu Hikawa Shrine. For example, one Sailor Moon fan made a prayer on behalf ofSailor Moon creator Takeuchi Naoko and another anime fan wished for success at the Comic Market.11
11

The Comic Market refers to an annual event for manga and anime fans held in Tokyo.

50

Fan Created Tradition: The Votive Prayer Tablets of the Sailor Moon Pilgrimage

In the context of an anime pilgrimage site, such prayer content reveals that the dedicator is likely apilgrimaging fan. Some prayers may be less easily discernible to those unacquainted with manga andanime pilgrimages. For example, there were two ema in this survey with messages calling for world
peace (世界平和 sekai heiwa). Although a prayer for world peace may not seem unusual per se, it has
been identified by Yoshitani as characteristic to pilgrimaging fans (2014, pp. 123-126).
As mentioned, seven ema were found to have multiple prayers. Specifically, six ema had two
prayers and one ema had three. The two prayer combinations were as follows: good health & goodsocial relations (two ema), good health & academic success (one ema), good health & good fortune(one ema), good health & world peace (one ema), and success in extra-curricular activities & world
peace (one ema). A single ema contained three prayers requesting good health (健康 kenkō), happiness (幸福 kōfuku), and success at work (仕事成就 shigoto jōju). As is evident, prayers for good
health dominate prayer combinations, conceivably because good health is seen as requisite for otherendeavors.
Two further results from the survey are notable. Firstly, although prayers were made mostly for the
benefit of the person or persons dedicating the ema, prayers were also made for others. In this survey
altruistic prayers were found on four ema, two of which were health related (See Table 1). Secondly,
no example could be found of any prayer specifically addressing or naming the Azabu Hikawa
Shrine’s enshrined deities, Susano’o-no-mikoto and Yamato-takeru-no-mikoto.

E.

The Sailor Moon Votive Prayer Tablets
Now I will shift the focus to the ema (votive prayer tablets) linked to the Sailor Moon pilgrimage.

Generally speaking, ema dedicated by fans can be identified through textual or illustrative cues. Textual cues are references in the written text of prayers, messages, signatures and so forth that draw aconnection to the manga or anime production, its creators, its characters, the fan community, or somecombination of these. This could be as straightforward as the naming of the media’s title or less penetrable such as fans’ argot. Illustrative cues are drawings and artwork that visually signal a link to themedia. Illustrations of the characters are the primary visual cues but other things may be drawn (i.e.,
objects), even kaomoji (Andrews 2020), which can function in this capacity.
Among the 31 ema displayed at Azabu Hikawa Shrine there were seven ema which may be identified as being connected to manga and anime fans. Looking at all 31 ema only five were found to possess illustrations. Examining these five ema reveals that they were clearly connected to Sailor Moonby means of visual as well as textual cues. The remaining two ema lacked visual references, but pro-51

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vided textual cues in the form of prayer. Next, I will examine these fan ema, beginning with those thatare illustrated. As all five illustrated ema were dated, they will be introduced in chronological order.
As for pilgrimaging fans, there are those who make the pilgrimage more than once, classified in
Tourism Studies as “repeaters.” In a similar vein, fans with a passion for illustrating ema may repeatedly dedicate ema. Some even serialize their work by inscribing on the ema the number of visits they
have undertaken or the number of ema they have dedicated. Such fan artists have had a particularly
strong presence at Washinomiya Shrine in the city of Kuki, Saitama Prefecture, which has been thepilgrimage destination for many fans of the televised anime series Lucky Star.12 When I spoke with a
fan at the Washinomiya Shrine on September 12, 2008, it was explained that those renowned for theirillustrative skill are referred to as “karisuma” (charisma) votive artists within the fan community. A
pair of such karisuma go by their dōjin ( 同人，fan artist group) name “Sugar-and-Salt.” Despite
being avid fans of Lucky Star, they made their way to Azabu Hikawa Shrine to post two illustrated
ema on January 31, 2010 (See Photo 1 & 2). Yoshitani, who observed these ema on a visit to the
Azabu Hikawa Shrine in 2012, noted that the illustrations by Sugar-and-Salt were in fact Lucky Star
characters costumed as Sailor Moon characters (Yoshitani & Satō 2014, p. 129).13 In other words,
these illustrations of cosplaying characters were mashups. Aside from the illustrations, messages were
written on both sides of the ema. Sugar and Salt both signed their individual pseudonym in black, but
additionally stamped their team dōjin name of Sugar-and-Salt in red ink. While Sugar-and-Salt’s signatures and their serialized numbering were written as yokogaki, the messages were presented in bothyokogaki (fan non-illustrated side) and tategaki (fan illustrated side) style. Both ema featured quotedlines from Sailor Moon characters. The ema illustrated by Salt (See Photo 1) with Lucky Star character Hiyori Tamura costumed as Sailor Mars (alter ego of Hino Rei) read “Kasei ni kawatte sekkansuyo!!” (火星にかわってせっかんスよ‼). And the one by Sugar (See Photo 2) with Lucky Star character Kagami Hiiragi dressed as Sailor Moon (alter ego of Tsukino Usagi) read “Ooshioki yo!!” (おっお仕置きよ‼). These scripted lines from Sailor Moon are typically delivered to the bad guys prior toan ensuing fight scene and can loosely be translated as “I’m going give you a beating!”14 Both ema
also carried prayers written on the reverse side from that on which the character illustration appeared.
Salt’s prayer was “Natsu-komi gōkaku kigan!!” (夏コミ合格祈願‼) that translates as “Prayer forIn his 2014 survey at Washinomiya Shrine, Imai discovered that one Lucky Star fan had dedicated close to 200
ema (2018, p. 174).
13
The illustrations were also discussed in Sugar-and-Salt’s February 14, 2010 blog entry concerning their visit to
the Azabu Hikawa Shrine. Accessed March 14, 2021. Available at: https://ameblo.jp/0721893/entry10457725425.html
14
All translations are the author’s.
1252Fan Created Tradition: The Votive Prayer Tablets of the Sailor Moon Pilgrimage

Photo 1.

Lucky Star’s Hiyori Tamura costumed as Sailor Mars

Photo 2.

Lucky Star’s Kagami Hiiragi costumed as Sailor Moon

success at the Comic Market.” On the other hand, Sugar’s prayer of “Inori zenkoku hōnō 108 mai” (祈全国奉納 108 枚 ) sought the successful dedication of 108 ema at shrines across Japan, the team’s
expressed goal to each illustrate 108 ema.15 At the point that these two ema were dedicated, Sugar had
15

In a November 24, 2009 blog entry, Sugar announced a plan to illustrate 108 ema. Accessed March 14, 2021.
Available at: https://ameblo.jp/0721893/entry-10395467769.html

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reached the 62nd and Salt the 69th out of their 108 ema goal. It is worth noting that the two ema usedby Sugar-and-Salt were procured at the Washinomiya Shrine, which is evident from that shrine’s
printed name on the back side. This suggests that instead of purchasing and writing their ema at the
Azabu Hikawa shrine when they visited, the more common practice among fans, that the duo illustrated their ema prior to arriving. It also bears witness that fans may travel to multiple anime pilgrimage sites beyond the one(s) that they are especially endeared to. Not only do fans operate within a folk
group devoted to a particular manga or anime, they may also be seen to identify with the greater
manga and anime fan community as well.
On an ema dedicated on March 15, 2010 (See Photo 3), a fan illustrated two characters standing
together that resemble Sailor Mars (left) and Sailor Moon (right). The horizontally penned prayer of“Kotoshi mo kenkō de sugosemasu yō ni!!” (今年も健康ですごせますように‼) wished for a year of
good health. Additionally, the fan interspersed seven stars in and around the text and illustrations in a
decorative manner. Another ema was also dedicated on March 15 (See Photo 4), which may be a signthat the two fans visited Azabu Hikawa Shrine together. This fan however drew three cat-like faces
presumably portraying the cat characters Luna (companion to Sailor Moon), Artemis (companion to
Sailor Venus), and Diana (daughter of Luna and Artemis), which suggests that two child-like faces of
Sailor Moon characters on the ema likely represented Sailor Venus (left) and Sailor Moon (right). Twovertically written lines of text demonstrably confirm that the ema was presented by a pilgrimaging fan.
The first line addressed to the creator of Sailor Moon, Takeuchi Naoko, reads “Takeuchi Sensei gan-

Photo 3.

54

Sailor Mars and Sailor Moon

Fan Created Tradition: The Votive Prayer Tablets of the Sailor Moon Pilgrimage

Photo 4.

Sailor Venus and Sailor Moon accompanied by Luna, Artemis, and Diana

batte!” (たけうち先生がんばって！). This can be simply translated as “Good luck!” However, italso can be taken as a prayer offering encouragement toward Takeuchi’s continued work. The secondline of “Hatsu seichi junrei” (初聖地巡礼) declared that this was the fan’s first visit to Azabu Hikawa
Shrine as part of their Sailor Moon pilgrimage.
The final illustrated ema was placed at the shrine on May 15, 2010 (See Photo 5).16 The fan, who
signed the ema using an apparent English name moniker, presented a portrait of Sailor Mars next totwo prayers written out horizontally. In the order they were written, the first supplication reads as“Shikijima no mirai ga akaruku narimasu yō ni” (敷島の未来が明るくなりますように), which
requested a bright future for “Shikijima,” although what “Shikijima” referenced was unclear. In thesecond prayer of “Kaisha ga motto seichō shimasu yō ni” (会社がもっと成長しますように) the fan
prayed for their company’s continued growth.
Two additional ema were also seemingly dedicated by pilgrimaging fans. Neither ema possessed
any illustrative cues, but both contained two prayers. One had a supplication that prayed for someone’s health and the other had a prayer that asked for a successful school festival. However, it was thesecond prayer on each ema that they shared in common. Both had a prayer for world peace, which aspreviously mentioned, has been recognized as being characteristic to pilgrimaging fans. Despite thelack of illustrations or text directly referencing manga or anime, they were linked to the five illustrated

16

A photograph of this ema appeared in Jolyon Thomas’s Drawing on Tradition (2012, p. 77)

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東北学院大学教養学部論集

Photo 5.

第 187 号

Portrait of Sailor Mars

ema in one regard. The seven individuals identified as Sailor Moon fans, all chose to sign their ema
with some degree of anonymity, by not signing their name (one ema), using pseudonyms (three ema),writing only a last name (two ema), or writing only a first name (one ema). Not one of the seven choseto write their full name despite this being the most common practice of people dedicating ema at
Hikawa Azabu Shrine.

IV. Creating Fan Tradition
Fan pilgrimages are often inconspicuous (Okamoto 2015, p. 30). This is because pilgrimaging fansat the pilgrimage site may be indistinguishable from the people around them. However, one distinctive
way by which fans tip us off to their pilgrimage activity is by leaving ema at shrines and temples(Andrews 2015, p. 122). As previously mentioned, Sailor Moon fans began making their way to
Azabu Hikawa Shrine in the early 1990s. As shown above, the present survey finds that manga andanime fans have continued that pilgrimage. Ishii reports that during the mass pilgrimage to Azabu
Hikawa Shrine in the 1990s, fans dedicated ema on which they wrote down prayers asking to be able
to meet the Sailor Moon characters (Ishii 2008, p. 215).17 Whether the practice of dedicating Sailor
Moon ema at Azabu Hikawa Shrine has continued unbroken through the years, occurred intermittently
17

Because Azabu Hikawa Shrine did not provide ema to fans at that time, fans furnished the ema themselves (Ishii
2008, p. 215).

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Fan Created Tradition: The Votive Prayer Tablets of the Sailor Moon Pilgrimage

over time, or just resurfaced at the time of this survey is uncertain. What is certain is that the fan dedicated ema seen in this study are artifacts of a contemporary generation of fans, who carry on a tradition, which by all accounts, started in the early 1990s.
A tradition is the anchor by which folk groups, which in the present study are represented by manga
and anime fans, preserve solidarity (Sims & Stephens 2005, p. 65). In his writing about fans of manga
and anime, Azuma has outlined three generations of fans born around 1960, 1970, and 1980 (Azuma
2001, pp. 6-7). Okamoto indicates that the third generation of those born around 1980 were the ones
who ushered in anime tourism (i.e., anime pilgrimage) (2015, p. 19). Of course, it seems plausible tosuggest that a fourth generation of those born around 1990 would be participating in the Sailor Moon
pilgrimage documented in this article.18 Nevertheless, it is striking that fans have kept the tradition of
dedicating Sailor Moon ema alive despite the fact that Sailor Moon’s peak of popularity predates, forexample, YouTube, smartphones, and mass-produced DVDs. Therefore, we might ask what the driving force behind this seemingly resilient tradition is.
It has been recognized that new traditions frequently arise as a group marks events and heroes asculturally significant (Ben-Amos 1984, p. 114; also quoted in Sims & Stephens 2005, p. 66). For
those making the pilgrimage to Azabu Hikawa Shrine, important occasions in the history of Sailor
Moon might include the publication of the manga, broadcast of the anime, and the subsequent birth ofthe pilgrimage itself. On the other hand, how are manga and anime characters conceived of as heroic
figures? El-Shamy defines a hero or heroine as “a character depicted as the center of action in real or
fictitious accounts of life and living” (2011, p. 650). The main protagonists in Sailor Moon, the Sailor
Soldiers, fit this definition, as would manga and anime characters in general. But more intriguingly,
El-Shamy further states that “the attributes of the hero/heroine depend on the narrator’s intent (i.e.,
the genre through which a given cultural expression is made), as well as the psychological composition (national character, modal personality) of the social group” (2011, p. 650). Applying this to thecase at hand, we should note that the medium of expression, manga and “their animated counterpartsin anime” (Brenner 2007, p. xiv), is intrinsically visual (Cohn 2010, p. 187). Accordingly, it is not an
overstatement to say that manga and anime fans likewise place value on visual aesthetics. Citing thespecific case of Sailor Moon, according to Allison, the basis for the popularity of the Sailor Soldiers
has less to do with them being superheroines and more to do with their outward attractiveness (2000,
p. 269). Thus, I suggest that the aesthetic qualities, particularly in terms of a captivating visuality,18

And perhaps premised on the globalization of manga and anime fandom we might categorize a fifth generationof fans born around 2000 that includes fans living outside of Japan.

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embodied by manga and anime characters are imaginably a prime factor in what elevates them to thestatus of cultural heroes or heroines becoming objects of adoration to the contemporary generation ofmanga and anime fans.19 This in turn leads to fans creating traditions such as the continued dedicationof ema at Azabu Hikawa Shrine.

Acknowledgment : My gratitude to Prof. Walt Wyman of Keio University.
V.

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