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Maneki Neko
The Lucky Beckoning Cat
Taisho Era, Found in Ofuna Outdoor Food Market
The Maneki Neko (literally "beckoning cat") is one of the most common lucky charms in Japan. Found frequently in shop windows, the Maneki Neko sits with its paw raised and bent, as if beckoning customers to enter. There are countless superstitions about cats in Japan (as there are in many other nations). Some Japanese believe that when a cat washes its face and paws in the genkan (parlor), company's coming. This belief may be a "Japanized" version of the 9th-century Chinese proverb: "If a cat washes its face and ears, it will rain." This may sound far fetched, but many other nations hold equally curious beliefs in the soothsayer magic of the feline.
Click here for a list of worldwide cat lore, or
click here for an interesting story about Japanese cats.
 HISTORICAL NOTES
(below data and photos adapted from:
www.manekinekoclub.com)
It is commonly believed that the Maneki Neko became popular in the latter half of the Edo Period (1603 - 1867), although this lucky cat is rarely mentioned by name in era documents. By the Meiji Period (1868 - 1912), however, it begins to appear with great regularity in publications and business establishments.
One of the most plausible reasons for its rapid rise to popularity in the Meiji Period involves the sex industry. In the secluded Edo Period, during which Japan closed its doors to the outside world, an indigenous "amusement" culture grew side by side with the expanding power of the merchant class.
 
(L) Ceramic Maneki Neko (M) Wood Maneki Neko (Edo Period)
(R) Cartoon Image from Corel Draw Collections
Special zones ("Yuukaku;" soap land in modern parlance) sprang up to provide female companionship (prostitution) and other forms of merriment. Many "houses of amusement" were equipped with a "good-luck shelf" on which were displayed lucky charms in the shape of the male sexual organ. Even today, various localities in Japan still hold an annual fertility festival, during which a gigantic wooden penis is paraded through the streets as an offering for good harvests and prosperity.
But with the opening of Japan by the West, and the establishment of the Meiji government in 1868, Japan's reliance on agriculture declines, and the country turns aggressively toward modernization. In its drive to establish a modern nation state, and in a ploy to minimize the negative image of Japan among the largely Christian Western world, the Meiji government prohibits the production, sale, and display of the artificial male sexual talisman beginning in 1872.
 These charms soon disappear from the good-luck shelf, but there disappearance coincides with the rapid spread of Maneki Neko charms. In the Yuukaku zones, poster images from the era show women beckoning like a cat. Restaurants soon pick up the habit, and the cat is out of the bag (so to speak)!
Another matter of interest -- in Buddhist teachings, the body of the cat can sometimes become the temporary resting place of the soul of very spiritual people.
CAT COLORS
 Among the various manifestations of the Maneki Neko charm, the most popular is tri-colored. Yet tri-colored male cats are rarely found among the world's cat population. Indeed, genetic studies show conclusively that a tri-color gene in male cats is quite rare. For this reason, perhaps, the tri-colored Maneki Neko is considered most lucky. White versions and black versions of the Maneki Neko are also popular. Some say white represents purity, whereas black cats have traditionally been considered lucky in Japan, able to ward off evil or cure illness in children. Today, the black Maneki Neko is reportedly gaining popularity among ladies to ward off stalkers. Various sites devoted to this lucky charm (see RESOURCES below) claim that the less-prevalent red-colored Maneki Neko is used to exorcise evil spirits and to combat illness, while gold-colored cats invite money and pink ones attract love. Nonetheless, in Japan's not so distant past, red and pink cats were thought to have supernatural powers and were avoided.
Accoutrements - Red Collar, Bell, Apron, Coin
Probable Connection to Buddhist Tradition
 The red collar with bell found on most Maneki Neko probably originated from a custom of the Edo Period. During those days, affluent ladies adorned their cats (an expensive pet at the time) with red collars made of hichirimen (Camellia Japonica, a red flower), and small bells were attached to the collar to help the owners keep track of their pets. Some Maneki Neko also wear an apron. Don't quote me on this, but one resource says it might stem from a custom involving the beloved Jizo Bodhisattva, the guardian of sick or dead children and expectant mothers (see "Jizo" entry for more). Even today, you will often come across a Jizo statue wearing a hat or bib or some other garment. Sorrowing mothers bring the little garments of their lost ones and dress the Jizo statue in hopes the kindly god will protect their child. Sometimes, too, a hat or bib has been gratefully offered by a rejoicing parent whose child has been cured of a dangerous sickness thanks to Jizo's intervention. And lastly, some Maneki Neko are carrying a koban (gold coin from the Edo Period). Worth one ryou (a measure of value in its day), the koban carried by the Maneki Neko is worth ten million ryou.
 Paw Up (Left or Right)
According to research by the Maneki Neko Club in Japan, about 60% of all Maneki Neko talismans are lifting up their left paw, while the rest hold up their right. South paws are supposedly beckoning customers to enter the store, while right paws are supposedly attracting money and good fortune (e.g., piggy banks in the shape of the Maneki Neko hold up their right paw). The distinction seems somewhat dubious to me - don't more customers mean more money? According to the same source, most Maneki Neko in earlier days were lefties, but the growing lust for money in contemporary Japan means that more and more modern-day cat charms beckon with their right paw. Paw height is also of interest. The higher the paw, the more expansive the reach of the cat's lucky magic.
  Paw Up (Front or Back)
The Maneki Neko made for export beckons by showing the back of its hand (as is customary in America and other nations). But the Maneki Neko made for domestic Japanese consumption beckons by showing the palm of its left hand, as is customary among the Japanese.
CAT LEGENDS
- Goutokuji Temple, 17th Century
 There once was a poor monk at a poverty-stricken temple. He shared what little food he had with his pet cat. One day, Lord Ii Naotaka of the Hikone district near Kyoto was caught in the rain near the temple on his way home from hunting. Taking refuge under a nearby tree, he beheld a cat beckoning him to enter the temple compound. As soon as he ventured forth to investigate this strange cat, the tree was struck down by lighting. The lord quickly became the temple's patron, and the temple soon became prosperous. It was renamed Goutokuji Temple in 1697 - even today, the walls of this temple in Tokyo's Setagaya ward are adorned with paintings of bobtail cats. When the cat died, it was buried in Goutokuji's cat cemetery, and the Maneki Neko was made in honor of this magical cat. According to some, the Maneki Neko since that time has been considered an incarnation of the Goddess of Mercy, the deity who watches over and protects people in the earthly realm. The Goutokuji Temple today is home to dozens of statues of this legendary cat, and owners of lost or sick cats come to the temple to stick up prayer boards containing the image of the Maneki Neko.
- Courtesan Usugumo, 18th Century
 During the Edo Period, in the eastern part of Tokyo called Yoshiwara, there lived a courtesan named Usugumo. She loved cats, and kept her feline pet at her side constantly. One night, on her way to the powder room, her cat began tugging at the hem of her kimono violently, refusing to let go. The owner of the amusement house came to her aid, and suspecting the cat to be bewitched, lopped off its head with his sword. The head flew to the ceiling, where it killed a snake poised to kill Usugumo. She was terribly distraught by the wrongful death of her beloved cat. To make her feel better, one of her customers gave her a wood-carved image of the cat, which later gains popularity as the Maneki Neko.
- Old Woman of Imado, 19th Century
There once was a poor old woman who lived in Imado (now eastern Tokyo). She kept a pet cat until severe poverty forced her to abandon it. Not long thereafter, the cat appeared to her in a dream and instructed her to make its image in clay. She obliged, and to her delight, people were soon asking to buy the clay statue. The more she made, the more they bought, and her poverty was replaced with prosperity.
Perhaps the least imaginative, but nonetheless compelling legend, involves two competing ramen shops doing business next door to each other. One sets a lucky cat in its window, and all the customers flood that shop. Well, at least until the shop next door gets its own Maneki Neko.
LEARN MORE
www.manekinekoclub.com
http://home1.gte.net/res0v461/orientalcats/
www.xmission.com/~emailbox/folklore.htm
www.catsandkittens.com/breeds/bobtail.shtml
www.catanna.com/luckycat.htm
www.amy.hi-ho.ne.jp/~mono93/cat/english/index_e.html
http://greenfield.fortunecity.com/dreams/383/page74.htm
Obakeneko Cats (Demon or Ghost Cats). More about Japanese cat lore.
www.usagiyojimbo.com/other/stories/obakeneko-of-the-geishu-clan.html
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