Many centuries ago, the cat beckoned, and the feudal lord followed. Immortalised in a statue and believed to be a lucky charm, the cat’s deed now lives forever.
It looked like any other temple in the suburbs; the same stone-paved approach, small shrubs on each side, and the naked, gnarly trees, patiently waiting for Spring to cover themselves in cherry blossoms. The ema hanging around the temple’s grounds danced in the wind, some showing the handwritten wish on the back of the plaque, others depictions of a white cat with a raised right paw.
Known was Gotoku-ji, the Buddhist temple deep in Setagaya district is famous due to a legend citing it as a birthplace of the Maneki-Neko, or beckoning lucky cat. Legend has it that in the Edo period a cat under the care of a priest in Gotoku-ji led a feudal lord to safety during a thunderstorm.
With a waving gesture — hence the raised paw in the Maneki-Neko statues — the cat beckoned the lord and his servants inside the temple to wait out the storm. To express his thanks, the lord donated rice, land and selected the temple as the cemetery for his prestigious family. As time went on, visitors began offering Maneki-Neko statues to the temple as a sign of gratitude when their wishes came through.
When I veered from the stone-paved path and walked past smaller temple buildings, I started to notice the statues of the cats peppered around the complex, from thumb-sized figurines lining the edge of a stone lantern, to knee-high waving cat statues pilled on wooden frames.
And the cats are not organised on shelves, visitors just deposit their offers where there’s space. Like a real feline would so, “If I fit, I sit”. And there they sit, small amongst large, broad on top of fat, spilling onto pavements, ledges and any surface that’s not yet covered.
Gotoku-ji might not be firmly established in the tourist temple trail, but it’s one worth visiting. Not only are the countless statues of cats are a curious phenomenon, but the neighbourhood also features cat-related art, and even the Tokyo-Setagaya tramline is branded as a Maneki-Neko!
