About
This blog was created to share a fascination with Maneki Neko, the lucky beckoning cat.
Maneki Neko means “beckoning cat” in Japanese. Also known as the Lucky Cat, this friendly-looking cat statue with one raised paw can often be found welcoming good luck, customers and prosperity into Japanese and Chinese restaurants and stores. The Maneki Neko originated in Japan in the 17th century. There are several folk tales about the first Maneki Neko, many centering around a poor temple or business whose fortunes were turned around by a cat who brought good luck. The beckoning cat statue eventually made its way from Japan to China and then to other countries as well.
I think the Maneki Neko is right up there with the Easter Bunny as one of my favourite animal deities. However, while the Easter Bunny only gives bounty in Spring, on Easter day, the Maneki Neko keeps on giving all year long! You can’t beat that.
Thanks for putting this up. I look forward to reading other comments and learning more about the maneki neko. For example, I noticed that they come in many different colours. I have even seen pink maneki neko! Do the different colours have different meanings, or is it just purely decorative? Maybe somebody can enlighten me.
As I look deep into the big black eyes of the maneki neko I find myself pulled into a parallel world of good fortune. With the cats help I feel like today is going to be a lucky day!
Jean-Pierre Antonio
Pink is one of the new colors that is supposed to beckon love. A post about the significance of different Maneki Colors is a good idea (we’ll put it on our to-do list).
BTW, we welcome suggestions for new post topics related to Maneki Neko as well as proposals for guest posts.
Enjoy real live Maneki Nekoes raising their paws!
Thanks for the link, Soren. Funny!
What a great web! And I thought I’d found them all. But Maneki Neko moves faster than I can. I’ll just have to try harder to keep up.
In the meantime, perhaps you or one of your readers can answer a question for me: Occasionally I’m asked to date someone’s MN and that’s tough. So I’m trying to get a handle on same. On one of your days you mention seeing a manekineko with plastic whiskers. (This isn’t a problem at my house as my genetic cats quickly chew them off.) But as to those Nekos that either had or still have those whiskers — I’d like find out when makers started using them.
I notice that I usually see them on large Tokonames & suspect that they are a replacement for paying someone to handpaint a nice set of fancy whiskers. If we assume that the current Tokoname design began after ww2 I wonder how much later they began using these plastic whiskers?
I have seen so-called “vintage” Nekos with them and I suspect that they indicate just the opposite, proving that the kitty was made less than 20 yrs ago. Also I can’t help wondering if this decoration started out as a Chinese or Taiwanese gimmick? Please, if anyone knows about this, I’d love to hear what they have to say … –Thanks, Donald in Memphis.
Glad you found us! I don’t know the answer to your question, but the Lucky Cats I’ve seen with plastic (or nylon?) whiskers were mostly in Chinese restaurants/shops, so, like you, I assumed they were a modern Chinese development (also plastic and nylon not used widely until after WWII). If I find out more, I’ll let you know.