Manekineko Art Museum

The Manekineko Art Museum in Okayama is devoted to the maneki neko, the beckoning cat figure believed to bring good fortune. It opened in October 1994 as the first museum in Japan to specialize in maneki neko, and about 800 of them are on permanent display.

History

The museum began with the collection of its first director, who saw the maneki neko as a folk art Japan could be proud of at a time when Western influence since the Meiji era was pushing old traditions aside. It first opened inside the grounds of Kinzan-ji (金山寺), a Tendai Buddhist temple, and moved to its present site in 1999. Since 2015 it has had two buildings, the main museum and an annex called LUCKY CATS HOUSE. The present director is Mushiake Osamu.

The collection

The display runs from maneki neko of the Meiji era to designs made for the museum itself. The figures come from production areas across Japan and are made of washi paper, wood, pottery, stone, clay, tin and other materials. The largest is carved from camphor wood and weighs 100 kg; it was named Kinpuku (金福) through a public naming contest. Artists and designers have also made maneki neko for the collection, among them Yokoo Tadanori, Uno Akira, Hibino Katsuhiko and Anzai Mizumaru.

The maneki neko

According to the museum, the maneki neko appeared in the middle of the Edo period, when keeping cats became popular among the people of Edo. Several places have their own legend of how it began, among them Imado ware (今戸焼) and the temple Gotoku-ji (豪徳寺) in Tokyo, and Fushimi Inari in Kyoto. The raised paw has a meaning: a right paw invites money, a left paw invites people, and two raised paws invite good luck. A higher paw is said to call fortune from further away. Colors carry meanings too, such as white for good luck, black against evil, red against illness and gold for wealth.

Painting workshop

In the LUCKY CATS HOUSE annex, visitors paint an unglazed clay maneki neko with acrylic paints and take home a figure of their own design. The museum has run the workshop since 2006, led by its curator, Mushiake Hitoko. A small library of books about cats, mostly picture books, library Yamaneko Bunko (山猫文庫), opened in the annex in 2020. The museum also holds seasonal events through the year, such as a New Year event and a kumade (熊手) market of good-luck bamboo rakes.