Caturday felid trifecta: Shrine honors felids on a Japanese “cat island; cat festival in Belgium; religious kitties; and lagniappe

From the AP News, we hear about a shrine on the Japanese island of Tashirojima, population 50 humans and 100 cats. (Click the screenshot to read). Here’s a map of its location from Wikipedia:

Click on the AP headline to read about this place:

An excerpt:

On a small island off Japan’s northeastern coast, visitors make offerings at a shrine for unlikely local guardians: cats.

The “Neko Jinja,” or Cat Shrine, mythologizes cats as guardian angels of Tashirojima, where cats outnumber humans.

Legend says the island used to be famous for sericulture and farmers would keep cats because they would chase away rats, protecting the silkworm cocoons from the rodents.

Fishermen on the island have also traditionally believed that cats bring good luck, including large hauls of fish.

Another legend says fishermen used to watch the cats’ behavior for tips on the coming weather before heading to sea.

The islanders have long coexisted with the cats. One day, however, a fisherman accidentally injured a cat while working. Feeling sorry for the injury, the islanders built the shrine for cats.

Here’s that shrine, but first a note from Wikipedia:

There is a small cat shrine, known as neko-jinja (猫神社), in the middle of the island, roughly situated between the two villages. In the past, the islanders raised silkworms for silk, and cats were kept in order to keep the mouse population down (because mice are a natural predator of silkworms). Fixed-net fishing was commonly practiced on the island after the Edo period, and fishers from other areas would come and stay on the island overnight. The cats would go to the inns where the fishers were staying and beg for scraps. Over time, the fishers developed a fondness for the cats and would observe the cats closely, interpreting their actions as predictions of the weather and fish patterns. One day, when the fishers were collecting rocks to use with the fixed-nets, a stray rock fell and killed one of the cats. The fishers, feeling sorry for the loss of the cat, buried it and enshrined it at this location on the island.

There are at least ten cat shrines in Miyagi Prefecture. There are also 51 stone monuments in the shape of cats, which is an unusually high number compared to the other prefectures. In particular, these shrines and monuments are concentrated in the southern area of the island, overlapping with the regions where silkworms were raised.

The shrine:

Tashirojima is part of the city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi prefecture in the Tohoku region, which became well known after a tsunami devastated the area following a massive magnitude 9 earthquake on March 11, 2011.

Over 100 cats inhabit Tashirojima, along with about 50 humans, according to the city’s website.

Wikipedia adds that there are no dogs, and gives this info:

Along a paved road running about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) between the island’s two ports, cats groom themselves and mingle with other cats.

There are a few cafes and inns, but no car rental shops, gas stations or public transportation. Tourists are expected to walk up and down the island’s hills while visiting.

Most of the cats are used to tourists, who can be seen petting the friendly animals throughout the island.

A photo from the AP of direction signs—and a cat, of course (credit: HK Photo; Hiro Komae)

From Wikipedia:

By 2015, the human population numbered around 80, while the total cat population exceeded that by several hundred, with at least 150 cats permanently residing in one of the villages. A vet traveled to the island every two months to examine the village-dwelling cats. While the cat population is mostly made up of crossbreeds and mixed-breed cats, one distinct breed commonly seen on the island is the Japanese Bobtail.

In Japanese culture, cats are considered to bring good luck, said to bring money and good fortune to all who cross their path. Some even claim that it was the cats who kept the majority of the island from being destroyed during the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

Another photo from the AP article: cats being fed at a cat cafe (credit HK photo, Hiro Komae):

From Wikipedia:

Since 83% of the population is classified as elderly, the island’s villages have been designated as a “terminal village” (限界集落, genkai-shūraku) which means that with 50% or more of the population being over 65 years of age, the survival of the village is threatened.  The majority of the people who live on the island are involved either in fishing or hospitality.

The island is also known as Manga Island, as mangaka Shotaro Ishinomori planned to move to the island shortly before his death. There are manga-themed lodges on the island, resembling cats.

Here’s one of the lodges from the Manga Island site, which gives useful information about how to visit:

. . . and more cats on Tashirojima (photo: Hiro Komae):

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Here’s a NYT article about an annual parade in Belgium for cats; the article is also archived here.  Click to read:

An excerpt:

A 7-year-old girl hawks cat-themed souvenirs in Flemish outside her parents’ shop. Two women in matching cat print dresses wander down a crowded street looking for a place to buy stuffed plush kitties. In every store and restaurant window, a cat figurine or statue signals allegiance to the feline persuasion.

This is Kattenstoet, Belgium’s cat-themed parade and festival.

JAC: I believe “Kattenstoet” means “Cat festival”.  And Ieper used to be known as “Ypres,” site of an infamous battle in WWI.

Tucked among rolling farmland in the West Flanders region near the border with France, Ieper, Belgium, has not always had such an adoring relationship with cats. In the Middle Ages, when the city’s main industry was cloth making, they used cats to keep wool warehouses free of mice and other vermin. But when the felines began reproducing too quickly, town officials developed a ghastly solution: During the second week of Lent, on “Cat Wednesday,” cats were tossed to their deaths out of the belfry tower onto the town square below. At the time, the animals were seen as a symbol of witchcraft and evil, so their deaths were celebrated.

The last live cat was thrown in 1817, but Ieper (also called Ypres in French) developed Kattenstoet in 1937, a tradition to both acknowledge the city’s gruesome history and celebrate cats. The parade, which was held on Sunday, May 12, is filled with elaborate floats, costumes and performances. Afterward, a person dressed as a jester tosses stuffed animal cats from the belfry, down to the onlookers below.

UGH. Do they have to toss the stuffed cats?

One woman, wearing cat ears while sitting on the curb eating a Belgian waffle, said she had traveled from Tokyo to catch the parade. Another, who identified herself as Beth from Northamptonshire, England, said she’d grown up coming to Ieper with her family to visit the British war memorials, but this was her first time attending Kattenstoet. Though she only owns one cat, a Maine Coon named Kimber, she has him and six of her former feline friends tattooed on her left arm.

There’s a lot more, and photographs (which I dare not show because the copyright Pecksniffs will get me), but look at the archived version.  Here’s a photo from Wikipedia:

. . . and a video of the 2018 parade; watch for the people dressed as cats:

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From Bored Panda we have a panoply of religiously-themed cat photos. I’ll show a few; click the headline below to see them all.

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Lagniappe: From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, a 9-year-old girl sets up a lemonade stand, with proceeds going to rescue cats. Click to read, and I’ll give an excerpt:

When Steve the cat passed away last month at the age of 16, 9-year-old Ivy Larson wanted to do something to honor him.

She set up a lemonade stand in front of her father’s house on Mount Washington and donated the proceeds to Nose 2 Tail, a cat rescue based near her mother’s home in McDonald.

good cat

“I wanted to help the cats there,” Ivy said. “I love cats … and Nose 2 Tail is right near my house.”

So the dogs didn’t feel left out, she also had homemade dog treats for the dogs that walked by her lemonade stand.

Joe Larson, Ivy’s father, said that the neighbors and community have been wonderfully supportive and gave generously in Steve’s honor.

They raised $150 and plan to have another lemonade stand on the Fourth of July on Hallock Street, Mount Washington, from noon-3 p.m. You can also contribute online in Steve’s honor at nose2tailcatrescue.org.

 

h/t: Laurie Ann, Ginger K.