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The Maneki-Neko of Gōtoku-Ji

10/16/2024

Statues of the Maneki-Neko (招き猫) nearby the Shofuku-den. (Taken by Michael Betar IV)

While I was traveling Japan (日本) last March I had come across a temple that appeared to have hundreds of "Lucky Cat" statues within it. In this video, I will briefly go into the history of Gōtoku-Ji (豪徳寺) and its modern connection with Maneki-Neko (招き猫).

Video Script:
The sky was overcast in the Hikone Domain (彦根藩) as Ii Naotaka (井伊直孝), the daimyō (大名) of this land, was stopped by a white cat sitting at the entrance of a temple.

This temple was old and seemed to have been slowly breaking apart. The white fur of the feline sitting nearby stood out to Naotaka, who had stopped his servants in their travel back from a falconry.

As if beckoning him inside, the cat lifted one of it's paws upwards like a wave and motioned for the feudal lord. Intrigued, Naotaka led his party into the temple as the overcast skies grew dark as a heavy thunderstorm struck down in the region around them.

The daimyō was treated to tea by the cat's master and he thanked the priest for giving them shelter from the storm. However, the priest did not want to take the credit from the feline who had truly saved Naotaka's party by inviting them in to shelter for the night.

To show his thanks to the cat and the priest, the Ii clan had made the temple their bodai-ji (菩提寺), their family temple, as it came to be named "Gotoku-ji" after Naotaka's death.

Later on, the Shofuku-den (所復田) was built to dedicate the cat, which had came to be known as "maneki-neko", a beckoning cat, in honor of the cat that had saved the feudal lord. Enshrined in the shofuku-den is Shofuku Kannon-bosatsu (観音), who is the bodhisattva of compassion in Japanese Buddhism.

After the erection of the Shofuku-den, mourners of Naotaka had left behind small white statues of a cat, with it's paw raised up as if waving. As the centuries continued on, more statues of the maneki-neko will appear at the Gotoku-ji as thousands of people a year come to the temple to pray for the well-being and happiness for their families and to see the massive collection of cat statues that can be seen surrounding the temple.

While visiting Japan this past March, I had traveled to the Setagaya (世田谷区) ward of Tokyo (東京都) to see the temple for myself and bear witness to the large collection of maneki-neko, or as many also call them in the West, "Lucky Cats."

At the back of the Shofuku-den hall, there are rows of shelves full of cat statues. A collection that made it hard to see the wood of the shelves they were sitting on. It was hard to get too many photos of them as waves of tourists continued to bump in front of each other to get better photos for their Instagrams.

Nearby the hall, there was a three story pagoda that towers over the temple displaying the 12 zodiac animals. According to many reports regarding temples and shrines in Japan, both this three story pagoda as well as the rest of Gotoku-ji had survived untouched by American bombing raids conducted towards the end of the second world war.

Now, before I end this video I wanted to bring up one last thing about the maneki-neko of Gotoku-ji that makes them appear quite different than many other maneki-neko. All of the cats displayed at the temple notably do not hold koban (交番) coins in their paws. This is because the maneki-neko do not give you happiness themselves, they bring you a chance to find it by beckoning you to live with gratitude of life itself as luck and happiness come to you spontaneously and leaves.