By TAKUMI OKADA/ Staff Writer
November 3, 2020 at 07:40 JST
A shrine maiden holds an ema prayer tablet illustrated with Atsuko Nishida’s plague-fighting characters. (Takumi Okada)
NARA--Inspired by “Bambi” and concerned about the pandemic, the creator of the beloved “Pikachu” character has illustrated a wooden “ema” prayer tablet with mythical creatures dedicated to the Kasuga Taisha shrine here.
The Shinto shrine is now selling the tablets, measuring 7.7 centimeters high and 14 cm wide, for 1,000 yen ($9.50).
The illustrator, Atsuko Nishida, is renowned for designing the iconic character from the popular “Pocket Monster” video game series.
The ema tablet features a white deer in tribute to a legend that says the deity of Kasuga Taisha shrine rode on the back of a white deer to travel to the shrine from Kashima Jingu shrine in Ibaraki Prefecture.
The tablet also shows Amabie, a sea monster with the power to fend off plagues.
Nishida said she always wanted to create a character in the motif of deer because she has loved watching the Disney film “Bambi” since childhood.
When she was wondering what she could do during the novel coronavirus pandemic, she learned about ema tablets from an acquaintance before coming up with the designs.
The illustrated white deer is called Haku-chan while Amabie is named Haru-chan after the first of the two kanji characters for Kasuga, which means “spring” (pronounced “haru”).
The two mythical creatures are painted in white and red to conjure up the image of Kasuga Taisha.
"I drew them hoping that they would soothe the minds of observers and make them feel at ease," Nishida said. "I hope they will lift the spirits of children and make them feel happy."
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