The waving cat - Maneki Neko.

The Maneki Neko - phenomenon


I was out in the city again last Friday and I was a man with a mission. I was searching a gift item to a certain person that I had decided to pay back some old dues - but in a positive way. Only in a positive way.

I found something quite interesting from the same oriental shop I had visited earlier. It was a cat. And the cat had it's right paw up in the air. It was waving to the passers-by. I bought it along with a red paper lamp with the same cat imprinted on it waving the same way. I tried to ask the old Asian woman at the counter if she knew anything about this cat. It was quite clear that it was indeed the same cat in both of these objects. However , the only thing that the woman at the counter could tell me , was that the cat was "waving for good luck". I had to know more from that point forward. I quickly found out all the answers I wanted - and more !

The Maneki Neko - cat is apparently a Japanese "lucky charm". Much in the same way as a Egyptian "Ankh" or the Irish four leafed clover. These things are supposed to bring you good luck with their waving. They are common in Japanese shops , restaurants etc. establishments and are sometimes situated near doors in order to greet any passers and customers with the paw-waving. But , as far as I've understood this sort of a cat could be situated almost anywhere in a house/office/apartment/building etc.

There are some very strict rules of conduct in order for a cat-statue to be qualified as a "Maneki Neko". First of all , it needs to have either one of it's frontal paws up in the air while it's sitting down. The color of a Maneki Neko is usually white but there are tri-colored , black , orange (even golden , as you can spot from my specimen !) etc. variants of the original one. However , the white Maneki Neko - cats still seem to be the most popular around , since white signifies purity to the lemon-colored characters... I mean the Japanese. The Maneki Neko is sometimes decorated with various "good luck bringing" messages written in Japanese. I have no idea of their actual translation , but I'm quite confident on saying that they are some sorts of messages bringing good luck.

Now, apparently the Maneki Neko - cat has existed , in one form or the other for a long time. It first appeared in various Japanese drawings and later on evolved to it's present (and very popular) form. A rather interesting variant of the Maneki Neko - cat was also concieved by various greedy store-owners , prostitutes and gambling house administrators in ancient Japan. The variant - unlike it's original form - made an "inviting gesture" with it's paw while putting on a lewd smile. This was supposed to attract customers i.g. for prostitutes. It would surely be interesting to find one of these "variants" too - I'd know just the person who to give one to ! Yeah , I'd probably give the cat with the inviting gesture to my girlfriend. "I bet she would love it".