I love the seemingly silly little cats, the maneki neko, that beckon you from store windows all over Japan. On my last trip to Japan, I took the opportunity to see a little more about their history. My husband and I finally visited the original shrine where they cats first came to be.

The Myth

The story of the shrine is very interesting. When you purchase neko offering sculptures at the gift shop, they come with a little slip of paper that tells the story. The offerings are not expensive. I paid 500 yen for each of mine, though I brought them back to Los Angeles. The story is a little longer than this but here is the short version from Wikipedia:

In the 17th century, a poor monk lived in a small temple in Tokyo. Although his life was very difficult, he shared his own meager meals with his pet cat, Tama. One day, Lord Nakaota Ii of the Hikone district was on the way to hunt when suddenly a storm came, and he had to seek safety under a big tree near the temple. Sheltering there, he noticed the cat, Tama, raising one paw as if waving him to the temple. Curious, he left his cover and headed for the temple to have a better look at the strange cat. As he did so, a lightning bolt destroyed the tree he had just stood beneath. Nakaota was so grateful, he became the patron of the temple, repaired it to become more spacious and in 1697 renamed it Gotoku temple. When Tama died, he was buried in a special graveyard for cats. In the temple, a statue of Maneki Neko was made to commemorate this special cat that has been revered ever since.

The shrine and temple are beautiful and peaceful.

How to get there

We took the train from Akihabara, where we were staying, and biked to the shrine and temple. We carried our bikes in their rinko through several stations which made the trip slightly more troublesome. It is a long trip for the Tokyo area – it’s going to take a couple of hours each way.

The temple grounds are nestled in a sleepy little neighborhood. If you are walking, it is a bit of a hike but if we hadn’t had bikes, it would still have been within a comfortable distance for us, as urban dwellers.

We had some trouble finding the entrance to the grounds because we came at it from the back. We left the train station from the wrong exit, I assume. It is a lovely area and relatively few other tourists were there at the same time. The neighborhood was not busy and we were able to stop and rest at a cafe both before and after the visit to the maneki neko temple.

Once we found the entrance, it turned out there was some light construction being done. It was not bothersome and simple to navigate around. The area at the front has a beautiful canopy of trees overhead. There are many structures on the site around the main deity’s temple, as well as a cemetery. The neko shrine is off to the left from the main building. We were not able to go in the main temple but did get to peek in.

The Maneki Nekoneko shrine

The shrine itself is small and very sweet. It is covered in offering statues of cats. People have inscribed the names of their pets on the bottoms and sides and left mementos.

Just like every country-side visit in the summer there were cicadas everywhere!! It is definitely worth the trip out to the suburbs, especially if you are tired of the crowds in the city. Be prepared to walk to the temple and take a break before you get back on the train. Have you ever been to this temple?