| East Chelsea Baptist Church |
ECBC |
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| East Coast Crips |
ECC |
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| East Cooper Baptist Church |
ECBC |
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| Easter |
E |
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| Eastern Colleges Science Conference |
ECSC |
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| Ebisu |
One of the Ebisu is an extremely popular deity of prosperity thought originally to have come from the sea bringing blessings from a distant country. He is closely linked with and variously identified with the Buddhist Fudo, with and, especially since the separation of kami and buddhas (shinbutsu bunri) with who unlike Ebisu features in the In fishing communities Ebisu was associated with good catches while in the countryside he was the god of the rice fields (ta no kami) and in the city from about the twelfth century onwards the protector of markets and merchants. Ebisu is generally represented as a fat, smiling, bearded fisherman holding a fishing rod and a large sea bream. Being deaf, he does not hear the kami being summoned to Izumo for the "kami-na-zuki" lunar month of October which is when his main festival takes place. See also ebisu |
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| Eboshi |
A tall rounded hat worn by Shinto priests. Cf. |
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| Eccl |
Ecclesiastes |
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| Ecumenical Community Helping Others |
ECHO |
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| Ecumenical Ministries Of Iowa |
EMI |
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| Ecumenical Quotient |
EQ |
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| Edmonton Chinese Baptist Church |
ECBC |
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| Edmonton Chinese Baptist Church, English Congregation |
ECBCEC |
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| Edo period |
The period from 1603-1868 when the Tokugawa shoguns were based at Edo. See period |
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| Eho-mairi |
Lucky-direction visit. A practice derived from ancient onmyodo beliefs and practices relating to auspicious and inauspicious directions which continue to be influential in Japan. It has contributed to the widespread practice of at new year |
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| Eight imperial tutelary deities |
The focus of ritual cults of the imperial house which were maintained from the fifteenth century exclusively by the and Shirakawa houses and after 1868 by the shortlived Department of Divinity (Jingikan) The deities are Ikumusubi no kami, Kamimusubi no kami, Kotoshironushi no kami, Miketsu no kami, Omiya no mekami, Takamimusubi no kami, Tamatsumemusubi no kami and Taramusubi no kami |
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| Elliott Baptist Church |
EBC |
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| Ema |
Small wooden tablets, usually five-sided and about the size of a hand, distributed at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples all over Japan. Ema means "horse-picture" and was perhaps in origin (the earliest known ema date from the eighth century) a substitute for a horse offered to the shrine as a messenger or servant of the kami. In the Muromachi and Tokugawa periods o-ema (large sized ema) developed as a professional art form, and were offered to temple-shrines and exhibited in emado (ema-halls) as thanks for some benefit received or for their artistic merit, a custom which continues. Pictorial conventions developed among professional manufacturers of small ema, so that a dog depicted easy birth (as in the hara-obi) a phallus represented fertility, a padlock over the character kokoro (heart) indicated a vow of abstinence and so forth. Ema today frequently carry on one side a picture of the current year-animal (see Juni-shi) such as a dragon, snake or monkey and a pattern or image related to the shrine from which they are obtained, including in some cases the for which the shrine is known. On the other side shrine visitors inscribe their name, address and personal either for a specific problem to be resolved or more generally for benefits such as good health or success in examinations (gokaku) work or marriage. Ema may also embody a vow, a message to a spirit, an ancestor or dead relative including an aborted baby (mizuko) thanks or appreciation for a successful recovery or a statement of resolve. Unlike talismans and amulets (o-fuda, o-mamori) which embody the spirit of the kami and are taken away, ema are messages to the kami or bostatsu which are posted at the shrine, but along with o-fuda and o-mamori the old year's ema are normally burnt at New Year |
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| Emaki-mono |
Picture scrolls with accompanying text, popular after the period and used to tell the founding stories (engi) and record the miracles associated with shrines. The best-known example is the tenjin engi of the Kitano Tenmangu |
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| Emishi |
Indigenous inhabitants of Japan who were gradually pushed back to the northern island of Hokkaido by Japanese expansionist wars. Hokkaido was fully colonized by the Japanese only in the 20th century. Ainu culture is different from Japanese, but there have been many cross-influences in the long course of Japanese-Ainu relations in the Japanese islands. Ainu festivals include kotan similar to festivals. The Kushiro kotan matsuri dedicated to the deity of lakes now takes place in Kushiro, Hokkaido on the second Sunday in September. The best-known Ainu festival is the iyomante or kuma matsuri |
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