Gotokuji temple – the home of the beckoning cat.

I’d always thought that the beckoning white cats that you can see here and there (very popular in Japanese restaurants in Stockholm) were a modern gimmick. It turns out that the cat has centuries of history. According to legend, a lord was out hunting, when a cat beckoned him towards a temple. The lord entered the temple just before a thunderstorm started. Gotokuji temple became the spiritual home of Manekineko, the lucky cat.

I’ve learned to tell temples and shrines apart now. A temple is buddhist, and has a gate building. A shrine is for the shinto religion, and has a torii gate. Also, as a visiting tourist, entrance to a shrine is almost always free of charge, while temples often charge a small entrance fee.

This temple building with sculptures of the twelve animals of the zodiac on its frieze has a manekineko cat.

Further inside the temple grounds, there were shelves and tables holding hundreds and hundreds of manekineko figurines that people had donated in order to bring good luck to someone or some venture.

The figurines were cute, but also kind of spooky in their absolute uniformity and with their straight-on stare.