Photo/Illutration Wooden votive plaques feature women’s chests. (Yosuke Hiruma)

KOMAKI, Aichi Prefecture—Visitors might laugh or blush in embarrassment over the artifacts displayed at the “breast temple” here, but they quickly stifle their giggles when they see the serious demeanor of chief priest Morio Okada.

“In a nutshell, it is a breast temple,” a grinning Okada, 70, said of the Mama Kannon temple. “But I am never joking.”

The temple deals with serious issues, including life-threatening ones.

At temples and shrines throughout the country, people pray for various things, such as success in school exams, business and relationships.

The worshippers at Mama Kannon temple often come in hopes of resolving problems associated with their breasts, including cancer and inability to feed their infants.

According to local legend, an impoverished young widow who was raising a child alone could not breastfeed her baby because she could not obtain sufficient food.

A neighbor gave her some rice, which she offered to Mama Kannon temple to pay her respects. She was later able to produce milk, and the health of the mother and the baby improved.

When people pass by a breast-shaped washbasin at Mama Kannon, water gushes out from its nipple-like parts. Behind the basin are countless “ema” wooden votive plaques featuring women’s chests. Good-luck charms that are breast-shaped or have illustrations of breasts are also available.

When Okada became the chief priest of Mama Kannon about 40 years ago, the washbasin was aged and no amulets had been prepared.

He hit upon the idea for a breast-based washbowl and ema when he was thinking of ways to “show memorable artifacts for visitors.”

According to Okada, the water supplied by the washbasin is supposed to represent breast milk. He said the water gushes out only when the washbasin detects a person.

Some ema at Mama Kannon show the worshippers’ simple desires to have more beautiful breasts. But many women troubled by problems with breastfeeding and mammary diseases have traveled from around the country to the temple.

Some ema offer prayers to loved ones and others with mastitis and breast cancer.

One of the wooden tablets shows a prayer that “milk will flow well so the baby can grow healthily.”

Another person who wrote on a ema hopes to “recover soon to live with smiles every day.”

“Breastfeeding is the practice where mothers are connected to children from the next generation, so there is no end to the number of women worried about such problems if their babies are not drinking milk well,” Okada said. “I want to provide a place where they can share various breast-related issues so they can reduce their stress as much as possible.”

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