Small wooden plaques used to express wishes to gods have been hung up at Shinto shrines for centuries. But in the age of social media, some people are opting to cover what they have written using a sticker to protect their privacy.

Nishinomiya Shrine in Hyogo Prefecture became aware of stickers covering the plaques, known as ema, earlier this year after being contacted by a visitor who had noticed them, with the person asking if the renowned Shinto shrine was accepting of the practice.

“If there are people who want to hang (their ema) with a sticker over it, we thought that was fine,” said Hideoki Matsui, a priest at the shrine.

He says that the number of such ema hasn’t increased since the initial report and that there are only around two covered by stickers, but that they have no problem with keeping them.

“The original intention of ema was for them to be seen,” Matsui said. “But in this day and age when protection of personal information is prioritized and anyone can upload pictures and comments to the internet, I understand why people would be more careful about publicizing personal information and wishes.”

Although Nishinomiya Shrine does not currently have any intention of promoting the covering of ema, a shrine in Kyoto Prefecture is offering the option by providing privacy protection stickers to visitors.

Shimogamo Shrine, one of the oldest Shinto shrines in Japan and a UNESCO World Heritage site, started to hand out “blindfold stickers” for free with the purchase of ema 15 years ago.

They initially began giving them out after a student on a school trip wrote about their romantic feelings for someone at their school, which to the wisher’s embarrassment a different group of students from the same school saw when visiting the shrine afterward.

“Since then, visitors can use stickers to cover ema that are legible,” Takashi Otsuka, a priest at the shrine, said in an email. “Almost 90% of the people (who write ema) use a sticker. Visitors are not turned off by it, and many say that they can write their true wishes without worry given the secrecy.”

Like Matsui, he acknowledges that in the current environment information can easily be spread by any individual through social media, and says that shrines will need to adapt to the needs of people today, including by embracing ways for people to express their prayers while maintaining their privacy.

“Similar to how people don’t have to say their wishes out loud when praying to the gods, or how you don’t have to write out your wishes when making an offering, as long as people write their ema with all of their heart and feelings, we understand that the prayers will reach the gods regardless (of them being hidden),” Otsuka said.