On a Wednesday our ship, non-HMS Blue-Liner, leaving Ishinomaki, landed on the Tashirojima Island, aka "Cat Island".
Tashirojima map, early 21st century, private collection
Lying in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast of Japanese mainland, the island is inhibited by cats and human beings. The island is small, 11.5 km round, on it live 80 people and 120 cats.
There are two villages, Nitoda and Odomari. Nitoda is more populated than Odomari both by humans and felines.
The rest is covered with woods through which pass some paved roads.
On the roads are found very few driving cars, but a lot of lying cats. Cats are in the middle of the roads. They sleep so carelessly that they do not wake up if strangers approach to them. Even Confuse-A-Cat Ltd. may fail to confuse them; they do not move, according to a local resident, even when a car approaches to them; the driver have to stop his or her car to pick the cat up and move it aside the road.
Moo cats blocking the traffic
On this island cats are so loved and revered by people that dogs are prohibited to be taken into the island.
Why are the cats so revered?
The story goes back to the 19th century when local residents raised silk-worms for their textiles. They kept cats to chase the mice away from their silk-worms.
Cats have been loved also by fishermen. The Tashirojima Island, near to a good fishing ground, in the 19th century was inhabited by fishermen coming from mainland. They stayed in inns around which cats gathered for leftover of the fishermen's meal. The fishermen, making friendship with the cats, developed a belief in which cats help them predict weather and fishery conditions.
Cat shrine and its guardian
One day a fisherman collecting stones to put up a fishing net accidentally made the cracked rock fall down on a cat to death. The fisherman's boss felt so sorry for the loss of the cat that he buried the cat and built a cat shrine. Since then, they made big catches. Shipwreck no longer took place. The fishermen got to believe in feline deity.
What features the cats on the Tashirojima Island is that they form groups. We see that the lion is not the only feline species that form a group.
A pride of chocolates
Why do they form groups? Do they hunt in groups?
What I saw was not a group hunting but a group begging. Groups of cats are found in places where tourists come. They are taking a nap or grooming, but once they hear a tourist rustling a plastic bag, expecting him or her to feed them, the cats gather around the tourist and demand for food, even though being fed by tourists is not allowed on this island,
A quartet in the begging order
Is demanding for food in groups more efficient than doing alone? Some naturalists may argue that the cats make groups since cooperative begging is the most adapted manner to the present environment of the island in which they have survived by getting food from cat-loving tourists efficiently.
But we also see that there are many solitary cats on the island. They are situated at places where tourists are likely to come; cat shrine, park benches, and toilets.
A tuxedo waiting for someone to come to the toilet.
The road from Nitoda to cat shrine is dotted with cats. They are lying at intervals of dozens of meters. A tourist going this way may be stopped and asked for food by a cat after another. The road is possibly covered with the cats' territories through which tourists pass unknowingly. This evokes plenty of toll castles on the Rhine River in Germany at each of that a passenger in the medieval ages had to pay toll to the territorial landlords.
A solitary but friendly cat on the road from Nitoda to cat shrine
Cats on the Tashirojima Island are friendly with humans, not only with islanders but also with tourists. They have no fear of strangers coming from mainland, perhaps like dodos on the Mauritius Island.
In the past the major attraction of the island was fishing, today cats. Did the recent influx of tourists change the behavior of the cats? A tourists, just putting his or her baggage on a ground, will see a cat coming to it, putting the front paw on his or her lap, look into the baggage, possibly expecting him or her to give it food.
The extrovert shows himself in a so extreme closed up in the camera LCD that the macro mode does not work.
So, where are shy cats? Did they die out as friendly cats expanded their territories and dominated the island?
Going further the road northward, I found some cats not friendly to strangers. Cats in Odomari village and nearby forest, where few tourists are there, are not so friendly to strangers as those in Nitoda. Among 7 cats I found in Odomari, 4 went away when I approached. The rests seemed wary of the stranger, maintaining distance from him. They seem to be living without counting on tourists' feed.
The rotund bobtail in Odomari presumably does not need to ask tourists for food.
In Odomari not so many cats are found as in Nitoda, but they look more domesticated than those in Nitoda and well-fed and healthy.
Tashirojima map, early 21st century, private collection
Lying in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast of Japanese mainland, the island is inhibited by cats and human beings. The island is small, 11.5 km round, on it live 80 people and 120 cats.
There are two villages, Nitoda and Odomari. Nitoda is more populated than Odomari both by humans and felines.
The rest is covered with woods through which pass some paved roads.
On the roads are found very few driving cars, but a lot of lying cats. Cats are in the middle of the roads. They sleep so carelessly that they do not wake up if strangers approach to them. Even Confuse-A-Cat Ltd. may fail to confuse them; they do not move, according to a local resident, even when a car approaches to them; the driver have to stop his or her car to pick the cat up and move it aside the road.
Moo cats blocking the traffic
On this island cats are so loved and revered by people that dogs are prohibited to be taken into the island.
Why are the cats so revered?
The story goes back to the 19th century when local residents raised silk-worms for their textiles. They kept cats to chase the mice away from their silk-worms.
Cats have been loved also by fishermen. The Tashirojima Island, near to a good fishing ground, in the 19th century was inhabited by fishermen coming from mainland. They stayed in inns around which cats gathered for leftover of the fishermen's meal. The fishermen, making friendship with the cats, developed a belief in which cats help them predict weather and fishery conditions.
Cat shrine and its guardian
One day a fisherman collecting stones to put up a fishing net accidentally made the cracked rock fall down on a cat to death. The fisherman's boss felt so sorry for the loss of the cat that he buried the cat and built a cat shrine. Since then, they made big catches. Shipwreck no longer took place. The fishermen got to believe in feline deity.
What features the cats on the Tashirojima Island is that they form groups. We see that the lion is not the only feline species that form a group.
A pride of chocolates
Why do they form groups? Do they hunt in groups?
What I saw was not a group hunting but a group begging. Groups of cats are found in places where tourists come. They are taking a nap or grooming, but once they hear a tourist rustling a plastic bag, expecting him or her to feed them, the cats gather around the tourist and demand for food, even though being fed by tourists is not allowed on this island,
A quartet in the begging order
Is demanding for food in groups more efficient than doing alone? Some naturalists may argue that the cats make groups since cooperative begging is the most adapted manner to the present environment of the island in which they have survived by getting food from cat-loving tourists efficiently.
But we also see that there are many solitary cats on the island. They are situated at places where tourists are likely to come; cat shrine, park benches, and toilets.
A tuxedo waiting for someone to come to the toilet.
The road from Nitoda to cat shrine is dotted with cats. They are lying at intervals of dozens of meters. A tourist going this way may be stopped and asked for food by a cat after another. The road is possibly covered with the cats' territories through which tourists pass unknowingly. This evokes plenty of toll castles on the Rhine River in Germany at each of that a passenger in the medieval ages had to pay toll to the territorial landlords.
A solitary but friendly cat on the road from Nitoda to cat shrine
Cats on the Tashirojima Island are friendly with humans, not only with islanders but also with tourists. They have no fear of strangers coming from mainland, perhaps like dodos on the Mauritius Island.
In the past the major attraction of the island was fishing, today cats. Did the recent influx of tourists change the behavior of the cats? A tourists, just putting his or her baggage on a ground, will see a cat coming to it, putting the front paw on his or her lap, look into the baggage, possibly expecting him or her to give it food.
The extrovert shows himself in a so extreme closed up in the camera LCD that the macro mode does not work.
So, where are shy cats? Did they die out as friendly cats expanded their territories and dominated the island?
Going further the road northward, I found some cats not friendly to strangers. Cats in Odomari village and nearby forest, where few tourists are there, are not so friendly to strangers as those in Nitoda. Among 7 cats I found in Odomari, 4 went away when I approached. The rests seemed wary of the stranger, maintaining distance from him. They seem to be living without counting on tourists' feed.
The rotund bobtail in Odomari presumably does not need to ask tourists for food.
In Odomari not so many cats are found as in Nitoda, but they look more domesticated than those in Nitoda and well-fed and healthy.
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