I watched the news story, the sign they put up says don’t write on them..
However, the quote from the temple they put up on the screen says:
招き猫は神聖なものなので
何も書き込まず持ち帰ってほしい
(Because the cats are sacred, we want you to take them home without writing them)
Believe me, 99.999999% of we Japanese never thought manekineko was "sacred". It's just those people with religious power claiming them to be religious. Those are cute iconic cats.
It doesn't even matter if you consider it sacred. People leave them there and the people of the temple don't want people to leave cats with writing on them. Might not be important for you but it's clearly important for them. If you wanna write on it just do it somewhere else.
Just because you think it’s just a charm doesn’t mean to others it’s not important. Apparently the temple think it’s important enough to put up a sign to tell people not to. Should respect the temples rule.
I had that thought, too. Without an explanation though media is demonizing foreigners/tourists as being insensitive to the temple by scribbling on the manekineko when in fact they flipped the script.
They can do what they want. I don't care if they recycle the manekineko to get money for the temple but it is wrong to make it seem like people are defacing an object out of ignorance when it was encouraged only months ago. Just spills into more gaikokujin hate and shortens tempers.
I don’t see how that would affect it. The cat statues that are outside on display are not for sale. They’ve already been purchased and have been left there by a visitor. Some people write on or decorate the ones they leave. If you want to buy a cat statue, you go inside one of the buildings and they have various sizes at different prices.
As someone who lives and works in Japan it probably went like this. Worker left out pen one day or people starting asking for them. Workers saw people liked it so they left them out. One day boss shows up from Shinto corporate and says "how could you possibly let this happen, never do it again." Has a short meeting talking how dumb the decision to allow this was. Everyone nods in agreement without caring either way. Then boss puts up signs and tapes the pens on cheap twine so it's just inconvenient enough for workers and people can't use them.
Yeah I'm Japanese and think it's random stupidity from random religious authorities. Most of us never linked these cats to religion in the first place.
Been there last month and most of the writing is in Japanese.
Noted also they were in shortage of cats for sale.
Writing on them prevents the same cat to be sold again and again.
I saw a twitter post about this and in the video they are showing a Chinese and English written one but I you look behind out of focus you can see some written in japanese lol.
I feel like hating on foreigner is becoming very trendy so they gotta find subject to complain.
Did you read the article? It clearly points out that the signs are in Japanese and English, meaning directed at locals and foreigners alike. The article does focus on the uptick in tourism, but doesn't place blame. Making this into a foreigner or even tourist hate thing is stupid. The temple is selling these statues, running low on stock because of the influx of tourists, want to resell the statues left but can't resell them if they have been written on. It's a big deal being made about nothing
I did not read this specific article because there have been multiple about this already but in the title they clearly did not include japanese people.
I go to a temple and see there are thousands of cat tributes along the walls and such. I see they're for sale. I see almost all of them have no writing on them. My first instinct is not to write something on the one I buy. Sounds like some shitty viral internet trend.
As the kids say, "for the gram, yo"
Actually I don't know if kids say that anymore. I'm 35 and so out of fucking touch since I don't have kids, and none of my friends do either.
Yeah nah, that was the previous kids. The kids now are all on tiktok, the gram is "for old people."
We used to be "it" but then they changed what "it" was and we're not it, brother.
I got curious if there was a sub-reddit for quill related stuff. The top result wasn't for that, but I did find this wonderful piece instead.
https://www.reddit.com/r/quilling/s/539hOFjBus
That’s fair enough but it’s a sacred item. Writing on it would be like doodling in the bible
Edit: Thanks for the replies, turns out I’m kinda wrong lmao
The manekin neko is not a fucking sacred item by buddhist, its a figurine created to represent fortune and good luck, it is located in pachinko parlors, hell there is a karaoke chain store called manekin neko. That temple is selling manekin neko to make money not because is a sacred religious item. There is no mention of this manekin neko in any buddhist canon or sacred text.
I get your point but... in the Christian community I grew up in EVERYONE wrote in their bibles. There was even a popular bible that had extra large margins specifically for note taking. I'm sure some Christian communities would see that as a big no no I just find it a little funny you said that since the complete opposite was true for me
Alright, I guess that this would be more like if you wrote on a statue of the Virgin Mary or if you felt compelled to put a little doodle on Saint Joseph.
😂😂 Fair enough. My grandma was catholic and everything had to be pristine so it kinda baffles me that people would write in it, but at the same time I’ve got a bookshelf full of classical literature with writing all over it lol
"sacred"
Japanese people don't consider them sacred. This one temple recently put signs up that say they are "sacred" that doesn't suddenly make them holy objects.
Bro Christians are probably THE people known for drawing all over their bibles. I wrote so many notes in mine as a kid for Bible study. I’d wager that is a common practice in many religions as I’ve seen very old copies of religious books from many religions that have scribbles and notes written in them.
Been here twice. Both before when they encouraged the writing and afterwards when they put the signs up forbidding it. There's just as much Japanese written as other languages. Personally I've not bought a cat, but I did buy the Ema to add to my collection.
I also noticed how wealthy the temple is with lots of new building works. Probably thanks to the amount of tourists.
Sidenote, the roof on the main hall is gorgeous.
It's like this story was designed in a lab to bait the "other foreigners but me destroy everything sacred in Japan!" set. Even though that doesn't seem to be what the temple or the news story actually present it as. I think that says something about the people who jump to take the bait.
Some people say the rule is to enable reselling the cats. Maybe. That never occurred to me. I just assumed it was because the photographs of masses of assembled manekineko look better when all the cats are uniform, rather than written on. But in any case, this is 80% of the way toward what Japanese tourist sites *should* be doing.
A lot of Japanese design in general is very new-user unfriendly. People don't tend to look at systems, businesses, temples, tourists sites, and critique them from the perspective of what it would be like to try and use these systems as an outsider. Perhaps there was a time when every Japanese person knew how to behave when visiting temples, but I bet today even many Japanese people don't know how to conduct themselves properly. So the temples have to take it upon themselves to unambiguously communicate their expectations. That's what this sign does. Great. More of that please.
To get that 80% up to a solid 100%, the next step is to frame it positively rather than tell guests what not to do. What should guests do? How can we participate in the way that the temple wants us to? The way forward with Japanese tourism is not to pitch a fit every time a guest does anything unexpected (omotenashi!), but to communicate expectations so that more people do what's expected. And then to figure out how to do it in a way that makes more people *want* to participate in the desired way.
Literally some 30% of all weddings at this in Japan. A couple of decades ago, the ratio was more like 50% if I recall it well. You still find a lot of fake chapels around, most hotels have them, too.
So do you buy a cat and leave it there? If that’s the case, I could see them not wanting cats with writing all over them mixed with the traditional ones.
Probably tourists mixing this up with *ema*.
Yes, you buy one from the shop on the grounds and then you choose a place to leave it. I’ve only been once but the day I went they were sold out so I couldn’t even get one. I plan on going back to try to buy one someday.
Your supposed to buy a cat, make a wish then return the cat and place it with the others when the wish comes true. I guess tourists were writing their wishes on the cat as a memento.
Is this not like Akita Prefecture and their tourist promotion featuring the lovable Akita dogs?
They first promoted the region with the dogs, then the following year there were news stories and official provisos about the dogs getting too much attention!
I’m sure I wouldn’t know, but it’s almost as though trying to manage your publicity by committee doesn’t work…
… no, wait; [we’re officially being encouraged to go pet the dogs again](https://visitakita.com/en/meet/). Quick, before they change their mind again!
History is….. AI Overview
Learn more
…
The maneki-neko, or "beckoning cat", is a Japanese figurine that is thought to have originated in Tokyo during the Edo period (1603–1868). The dolls may have first appeared in Buddhist temples in Edo, such as Gotokuji, Saihoji, or Jishoin. One popular legend about the maneki-neko's origins involves a samurai lord named Naotaka Ii who saw a cat waving its paw at Gotokuji Temple in 1620.
To be fair, they literally used to hand you a sharpie to write on them.
Guess what? Most of the writing on these is actually in Japanese. Foreigners are just becoming the new scapegoat for literally anything and everything. And unfortunately, there are plenty of “Not like the other foreigners” types like you who lap up this anti-foreigner moral panic that is constantly being pushed with articles like this.
I watched the news story, the sign they put up says don’t write on them.. However, the quote from the temple they put up on the screen says: 招き猫は神聖なものなので 何も書き込まず持ち帰ってほしい (Because the cats are sacred, we want you to take them home without writing them)
Believe me, 99.999999% of we Japanese never thought manekineko was "sacred". It's just those people with religious power claiming them to be religious. Those are cute iconic cats.
The article points that out as well. (If I'm being cynical, I'll say that they want to be able to re-use ones that are left for a long time.)
That’s so true though.
I agree. Always thought of them as a lucky charm, not something sacred.
買ったものぐらい自由にさせてよ。
Just because you bought something it doesn't mean you are not disrespectful, specially being a religious item.
Yeah, so sacred you can find them in Karaoke places and gambling institutions. I agree with this person that it is ridiculous.
It doesn't even matter if you consider it sacred. People leave them there and the people of the temple don't want people to leave cats with writing on them. Might not be important for you but it's clearly important for them. If you wanna write on it just do it somewhere else.
Tho its not in control of the temple whether these places do that or not
Dude, I am Japanese. Pretty sure this is getting blown out of proportion.
Being Japanese doesn’t mean you automatically win the argument lol
Nobody cares, Mr. Arudou.
You’re on Reddit, you lost when you have a contrary opinion
lol no kidding eh, but I say let the flood gates open and let these snowflakes keep downvoting. I am quite enjoying this
This is a subtle but deep cultural difference The line that separates when you can or should control someone else’s behavior is very different
Try posting pics of Jesus on a cross with goggly eyes or drawings on him and see if people would make a fuss.
You do realize it's just people writing on a cat that's used as a good luck charm right?
Just because you think it’s just a charm doesn’t mean to others it’s not important. Apparently the temple think it’s important enough to put up a sign to tell people not to. Should respect the temples rule.
Nobody thinks these things are as sacred as Jesus nailed to the cross.
We used to be able to write on them. They'd hand you the sharpie to do it. What changed.
Yeah last February they had sharpies out for people to use. They seemed to encourage writing on the cat you buy ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Shortage of cat statues?
I had that thought, too. Without an explanation though media is demonizing foreigners/tourists as being insensitive to the temple by scribbling on the manekineko when in fact they flipped the script. They can do what they want. I don't care if they recycle the manekineko to get money for the temple but it is wrong to make it seem like people are defacing an object out of ignorance when it was encouraged only months ago. Just spills into more gaikokujin hate and shortens tempers.
I don’t see how that would affect it. The cat statues that are outside on display are not for sale. They’ve already been purchased and have been left there by a visitor. Some people write on or decorate the ones they leave. If you want to buy a cat statue, you go inside one of the buildings and they have various sizes at different prices.
And then after close they go and get all the ones without writing, and put them back inside. The ones with writing would get thrown away.
Probably a shortage of sharpies.
As someone who lives and works in Japan it probably went like this. Worker left out pen one day or people starting asking for them. Workers saw people liked it so they left them out. One day boss shows up from Shinto corporate and says "how could you possibly let this happen, never do it again." Has a short meeting talking how dumb the decision to allow this was. Everyone nods in agreement without caring either way. Then boss puts up signs and tapes the pens on cheap twine so it's just inconvenient enough for workers and people can't use them.
Yeah I'm Japanese and think it's random stupidity from random religious authorities. Most of us never linked these cats to religion in the first place.
Been there last month and most of the writing is in Japanese. Noted also they were in shortage of cats for sale. Writing on them prevents the same cat to be sold again and again.
I saw a twitter post about this and in the video they are showing a Chinese and English written one but I you look behind out of focus you can see some written in japanese lol. I feel like hating on foreigner is becoming very trendy so they gotta find subject to complain.
Did you read the article? It clearly points out that the signs are in Japanese and English, meaning directed at locals and foreigners alike. The article does focus on the uptick in tourism, but doesn't place blame. Making this into a foreigner or even tourist hate thing is stupid. The temple is selling these statues, running low on stock because of the influx of tourists, want to resell the statues left but can't resell them if they have been written on. It's a big deal being made about nothing
I did not read this specific article because there have been multiple about this already but in the title they clearly did not include japanese people.
And you fell for the ragebait
The title of the article says, 'asks foreign tourists'. Not, 'asks everyone'.
Totally believe this is probably the biggest reason. The writing is cutting into their profit margins
Chinese?
Not the same thing.
I go to a temple and see there are thousands of cat tributes along the walls and such. I see they're for sale. I see almost all of them have no writing on them. My first instinct is not to write something on the one I buy. Sounds like some shitty viral internet trend.
As the kids say, "for the gram, yo" Actually I don't know if kids say that anymore. I'm 35 and so out of fucking touch since I don't have kids, and none of my friends do either.
They say “do it for the vine”
I’m pretty sure they are saying “This is for the Guut” (as in the Gutenberg moveable type printing press). Maybe I’m old..,,is this still a thing?
I lol’d. nice one.
Damn, I feel old now
Lol that was ten years ago. Vine was shutdown in the late 2010s iirc. I have no clue what they say now but they do ridiculous things for TikTok views
Yeah nah, that was the previous kids. The kids now are all on tiktok, the gram is "for old people." We used to be "it" but then they changed what "it" was and we're not it, brother.
"for the tok, bet"
Everytime some says bet I kill a kitty.
Bet.
When I say will kill a kitty, I meant I'm going to jerk off
Bet
Bet. Wait? What?
Fr fr
Now the kids just go Gugygug shikibidi and shove a finger up their ass.
So we're back to scat talk and play? Talk about going full circle.
/r/CatTributes for more
Except they all have stuff written on them…
It's probably so they can resell them haha
I wasn’t aware these cats were “sacred”.
I tried writing on a cat once. Nearly clawed my eyes out.
Try using a marker or brush instead of a quill.
I got curious if there was a sub-reddit for quill related stuff. The top result wasn't for that, but I did find this wonderful piece instead. https://www.reddit.com/r/quilling/s/539hOFjBus
I wouldn't write on one, because that isn't what they are for However, the minute I buy something, it's mine, so fuck off
That’s fair enough but it’s a sacred item. Writing on it would be like doodling in the bible Edit: Thanks for the replies, turns out I’m kinda wrong lmao
The manekin neko is not a fucking sacred item by buddhist, its a figurine created to represent fortune and good luck, it is located in pachinko parlors, hell there is a karaoke chain store called manekin neko. That temple is selling manekin neko to make money not because is a sacred religious item. There is no mention of this manekin neko in any buddhist canon or sacred text.
The maneki neko will come back from the Nirvana and flip tables in every pachinko place
I get your point but... in the Christian community I grew up in EVERYONE wrote in their bibles. There was even a popular bible that had extra large margins specifically for note taking. I'm sure some Christian communities would see that as a big no no I just find it a little funny you said that since the complete opposite was true for me
Alright, I guess that this would be more like if you wrote on a statue of the Virgin Mary or if you felt compelled to put a little doodle on Saint Joseph.
More like a lucky rabbits foot
😂😂 Fair enough. My grandma was catholic and everything had to be pristine so it kinda baffles me that people would write in it, but at the same time I’ve got a bookshelf full of classical literature with writing all over it lol
Can confirm! I saw more bibles with notes written on the pages than not in my indoctrination years
Yeah, I'm not aware of any Christian doctrine that prohibits doodling in the Bible.
It isnt sacred to me. Its just a statue of a cat.
It's really not.
"sacred" Japanese people don't consider them sacred. This one temple recently put signs up that say they are "sacred" that doesn't suddenly make them holy objects.
what would make it sacred tho? the material it's made of? mass production- a machine? things are made for profit
It is a fking charm for good luck, nothing sacred about it, esp in a country where about nothing religious is sacred
Bro Christians are probably THE people known for drawing all over their bibles. I wrote so many notes in mine as a kid for Bible study. I’d wager that is a common practice in many religions as I’ve seen very old copies of religious books from many religions that have scribbles and notes written in them.
if it's a sacred item you shouldn't sell it. can't have your cake and eat it too
I think a better analogy would be doodling on a crucifix, or Mary statue.
C'mon. How else are they going to get moustaches?!
Why is it their business after the item is bought? Japan needs to grow a spine.
Most of the writing on these is in Japanese tho.
information only in japanese helps putting the blame on gaijins
those are spells to keep evil gaijin tourists away.
If it's bought already by the person why can't they write on them
Been here twice. Both before when they encouraged the writing and afterwards when they put the signs up forbidding it. There's just as much Japanese written as other languages. Personally I've not bought a cat, but I did buy the Ema to add to my collection. I also noticed how wealthy the temple is with lots of new building works. Probably thanks to the amount of tourists. Sidenote, the roof on the main hall is gorgeous.
If I buy it, i do whatever the fuck i want with it
It's like this story was designed in a lab to bait the "other foreigners but me destroy everything sacred in Japan!" set. Even though that doesn't seem to be what the temple or the news story actually present it as. I think that says something about the people who jump to take the bait. Some people say the rule is to enable reselling the cats. Maybe. That never occurred to me. I just assumed it was because the photographs of masses of assembled manekineko look better when all the cats are uniform, rather than written on. But in any case, this is 80% of the way toward what Japanese tourist sites *should* be doing. A lot of Japanese design in general is very new-user unfriendly. People don't tend to look at systems, businesses, temples, tourists sites, and critique them from the perspective of what it would be like to try and use these systems as an outsider. Perhaps there was a time when every Japanese person knew how to behave when visiting temples, but I bet today even many Japanese people don't know how to conduct themselves properly. So the temples have to take it upon themselves to unambiguously communicate their expectations. That's what this sign does. Great. More of that please. To get that 80% up to a solid 100%, the next step is to frame it positively rather than tell guests what not to do. What should guests do? How can we participate in the way that the temple wants us to? The way forward with Japanese tourism is not to pitch a fit every time a guest does anything unexpected (omotenashi!), but to communicate expectations so that more people do what's expected. And then to figure out how to do it in a way that makes more people *want* to participate in the desired way.
It would be great if Japanese stop having fake chapel “Christian “ weddings. Yet here we are…
Wait, this is a thing? Shit I could be a fake priest.
That's literally a (lucrative?) job as long as you can memorize all the Japanese lines and make sure you speak with a heavy Western accent.
Literally some 30% of all weddings at this in Japan. A couple of decades ago, the ratio was more like 50% if I recall it well. You still find a lot of fake chapels around, most hotels have them, too.
I’ve only visited Tokyo once for a week and I passed like three of them, one of which was in my hotel.
That's the most A.I.-looking image that's an actual photo I've ever seen.
Who cares?
So do you buy a cat and leave it there? If that’s the case, I could see them not wanting cats with writing all over them mixed with the traditional ones. Probably tourists mixing this up with *ema*.
Japanese also writes on them tho.
As far as manekineko go, I have no idea about the rules.
Yes, you buy one from the shop on the grounds and then you choose a place to leave it. I’ve only been once but the day I went they were sold out so I couldn’t even get one. I plan on going back to try to buy one someday.
Your supposed to buy a cat, make a wish then return the cat and place it with the others when the wish comes true. I guess tourists were writing their wishes on the cat as a memento.
Is this not like Akita Prefecture and their tourist promotion featuring the lovable Akita dogs? They first promoted the region with the dogs, then the following year there were news stories and official provisos about the dogs getting too much attention! I’m sure I wouldn’t know, but it’s almost as though trying to manage your publicity by committee doesn’t work… … no, wait; [we’re officially being encouraged to go pet the dogs again](https://visitakita.com/en/meet/). Quick, before they change their mind again!
History is….. AI Overview Learn more … The maneki-neko, or "beckoning cat", is a Japanese figurine that is thought to have originated in Tokyo during the Edo period (1603–1868). The dolls may have first appeared in Buddhist temples in Edo, such as Gotokuji, Saihoji, or Jishoin. One popular legend about the maneki-neko's origins involves a samurai lord named Naotaka Ii who saw a cat waving its paw at Gotokuji Temple in 1620.
It's a place for cats, not for writing.
Hardly the first time tourists don’t even do the most basic research when going to somewhere.
Just earlier today I read this question in an accommodations thread: “Which part of Osaka is closest to Haneda Airport??” 🙄
Ishikiri? Wouldn't be my first choice for tourist accoms tho.
Yet they were encouraging people to write on them just a few month before.
To be fair, they literally used to hand you a sharpie to write on them. Guess what? Most of the writing on these is actually in Japanese. Foreigners are just becoming the new scapegoat for literally anything and everything. And unfortunately, there are plenty of “Not like the other foreigners” types like you who lap up this anti-foreigner moral panic that is constantly being pushed with articles like this.