2026 nengajo drawing comes with a never-before-seen photo of the legendary anime director.

There are many things we look forward to at the start of a new year in Japan, like lucky bags, special foods, and New Year’s cards known as nengajo, which are commonly sent to relatives, friends and colleagues to wish them good tidings for the upcoming year.

Though nengajo have seen a decline since the rise of social media messaging, one person who still keeps the tradition alive is Hayao Miyazaki. Every year, Studio Ghibli, the anime studio Miyazaki co-founded in 1985 with fellow director Isao Takahata and producer Toshio Suzuki, publishes a digital nengajo for fans featuring artwork drawn by Miyazaki, with the new year’s zodiac animal being a recurring main theme.

▼ In 2024, Miyazaki created this artwork for the Year of the Dragon.

▼ And in 2025, Miyazaki created this artwork for the Year of the Dragon.

▼ This year, the studio is sending us all good wishes for the Year of the Horse in 2026, with new artwork from Miyazaki.

The studio’s latest nengajo takes a slightly different design approach to previous years, featuring a digitally drawn ema as the base for Miyazaki’s horse artwork. The inclusion of an ema is particularly significant, as the word literally means “picture horse“, being made up of the kanji characters 絵 (e, “picture”) and 馬 (ma, “horse”). These days, ema are small wooden votive tablets on which people write wishes or prayers and hang them at shrines and temples, but their name comes from the ancient practice of dedicating horses to the gods instead of plaques, making its appearance a clever nod to the ema’s equine history.

▼ A much easier way to express your wishes.

The horse-and-ema association on Studio Ghibli’s nengajo comes with the traditional greeting “謹賀新年” (“Kingashinnen” or “Happy New Year”), and is accompanied by the following message from the studio:

“We would like to extend our best wishes for the New Year to everyone.
Thank you for your continued support of Studio Ghibli.

Getting right into it, here is a photo of director Hayao Miyazaki and producer Toshio Suzuki.
It was last December, and the two of them were discussing matters related to the year 2026.
All of our staff will be thinking of ways to bring enjoyment to everyone this year as well, so please look forward to it.

Thank you for your continued support this year.
2026.01.01″

The photo above, included with the message, gives us an updated look at the famously elusive Miyazaki, in a moment of downtime with his longtime associate and friend. We haven’t seen Miyazaki since his Oscar-related chat with Suzuki in 2024, so this update will come as welcome news to Ghibli fans as the director approaches his 85th birthday on 5 January.

It’s heartwarming to see the studio share not only a new illustration from Miyazaki but a photo of the man himself as well, taken at Studio One at Ghibli’s Mitaka in Tokyo. The longstanding tradition of receiving New Year’s wishes from the studio has been delighting fans since 2021, and long may it continue into the future!

Source: Studio Ghibli
Top image©SoraNews24
Insert images: Studio Ghibli (1, 2, 3) Pakutaso
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