Shrine Plaque (Ema) of "Shoki, The Demon Queller"

"In searching for patterns, I was taken with a large Japanese Ema, found crated in storage. It was far from its original resting place in some temple where it had memorialized a battle and represented a gift by some notable. For me, there was fascinationa in the contrast of the hurly-burly commotion on the boat as it rode the very patternesque waves into a battle. Chaos and order…and patterns and antipatterns…elements that are still with us to this day." Lloyd Cotsen, "Looking Behind My Eye," in The Extraordinary in the Ordinary, p. 20.