On a Saturday our ship (non-HMS Prince) , leaving the Manabeshima(*1), landed on the Sanagishima island, aka cat island.
Sanagishima island map, early 21st century
The island is small, just 6.6 kilometers round, on it live 80 people and apparently more than 70 cats.
The port we landed on was in Honura village, southeastern end of the island.
It is very hot in August. Daytime temperature rises up to 34 degrees Celsius (93 Fahrenheit). On the seaside road scorched in the torrid sunlight are no one but tourists wandering about to see cats.
The tourists want to take a photo of cats jumping on the dykes in the foreground, behind that is a seascape in which is a conical green island in the middle ground and blue sky with white clouds in the background, but finding no cats nearby, just learn it is almost impossible in a hot sunny day in the middle of the summer to take a photo of a jumping cat.
On the seaside road are no cats in a hot sunny day.
So, where are the cats? Wandering about in the village, we find them resting in shades cast by houses.
A cat resting in a shade
In the village are not so many houses to cast shades.
This bed in the shade is already occupied.
Some cats are lying in the middle of the streets, but they do not have a fear of being killed by a driving car.
On the island are some cars, but they are rarely driving. The major role of the cars on this island in the summer seems not to drive but to protect cats from strong sunlight.
The cats are resting in the shade of an unused car.
The youngsters are cheerful, playing under a car.
One of the most ideal places for cats to rest is the garden of a Buddhist temple, Jorenji, where cats are lying in spacious shades and enjoying tranquility.
The rocks in the Jorenji garden are well-designed to be a cat's bed.
The temple garden is a place for cats' community.
The temple is on the hillside gently sloping to the seashore. In front of the temple garden are steps on that are found feline tracks.
Footprints of felis catus, late 20th to early 21st century
The tracks are purrfectly preserved and still visible to visitors. The temple was founded in 1241 but the paw prints are likely to have been made much later, probably after middle of the 20th century when concrete pavement became widely built in Japan.
So why did the cats leave the paw prints here in front of the Jorenji temple which collected records of the island history? In the temple area there is no one but five cats who only tell us that the tracks probably are their ancestors'.(*2)
The intention of the cats having left the tracks might be trifling and worthless to discuss, but the implications of them may be profound and worth enough to consider some interpretations with regard to the cat island history.
Tracing the tracks leads us downstairs to a graveyard where we may find clue to deciphering the mystery why this island, the Sanagishima, became a cat island as a consequence of centuries of the island history related to the sea, or may not.
(*1) In 2017 the ferry from the Manabeshima to the Sanagishima shuttles only on Saturday. Most of the tourists come to the Sanagishima by the ferry from Tadotsu on the Shikoku island, that is available every day.
(*2) The reasons these tracks are considered not canine but feline are, firstly, that there has been much more cats than dogs on the island, and secondly, that those tracks have features of feline paw prints such as no nails, circular shape as a whole, small negative spaces between the heel pads and the toes.
Sanagishima island map, early 21st century
The island is small, just 6.6 kilometers round, on it live 80 people and apparently more than 70 cats.
The port we landed on was in Honura village, southeastern end of the island.
It is very hot in August. Daytime temperature rises up to 34 degrees Celsius (93 Fahrenheit). On the seaside road scorched in the torrid sunlight are no one but tourists wandering about to see cats.
The tourists want to take a photo of cats jumping on the dykes in the foreground, behind that is a seascape in which is a conical green island in the middle ground and blue sky with white clouds in the background, but finding no cats nearby, just learn it is almost impossible in a hot sunny day in the middle of the summer to take a photo of a jumping cat.
On the seaside road are no cats in a hot sunny day.
So, where are the cats? Wandering about in the village, we find them resting in shades cast by houses.
A cat resting in a shade
In the village are not so many houses to cast shades.
This bed in the shade is already occupied.
Some cats are lying in the middle of the streets, but they do not have a fear of being killed by a driving car.
On the island are some cars, but they are rarely driving. The major role of the cars on this island in the summer seems not to drive but to protect cats from strong sunlight.
The cats are resting in the shade of an unused car.
The youngsters are cheerful, playing under a car.
One of the most ideal places for cats to rest is the garden of a Buddhist temple, Jorenji, where cats are lying in spacious shades and enjoying tranquility.
The rocks in the Jorenji garden are well-designed to be a cat's bed.
The temple garden is a place for cats' community.
The temple is on the hillside gently sloping to the seashore. In front of the temple garden are steps on that are found feline tracks.
Footprints of felis catus, late 20th to early 21st century
The tracks are purrfectly preserved and still visible to visitors. The temple was founded in 1241 but the paw prints are likely to have been made much later, probably after middle of the 20th century when concrete pavement became widely built in Japan.
So why did the cats leave the paw prints here in front of the Jorenji temple which collected records of the island history? In the temple area there is no one but five cats who only tell us that the tracks probably are their ancestors'.(*2)
The intention of the cats having left the tracks might be trifling and worthless to discuss, but the implications of them may be profound and worth enough to consider some interpretations with regard to the cat island history.
Tracing the tracks leads us downstairs to a graveyard where we may find clue to deciphering the mystery why this island, the Sanagishima, became a cat island as a consequence of centuries of the island history related to the sea, or may not.
(*1) In 2017 the ferry from the Manabeshima to the Sanagishima shuttles only on Saturday. Most of the tourists come to the Sanagishima by the ferry from Tadotsu on the Shikoku island, that is available every day.
(*2) The reasons these tracks are considered not canine but feline are, firstly, that there has been much more cats than dogs on the island, and secondly, that those tracks have features of feline paw prints such as no nails, circular shape as a whole, small negative spaces between the heel pads and the toes.
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