What does the maneki-neko mean?

It is beckoning, not waving. The raised paw performs the Japanese come-here gesture, palm out with fingers folding down, and the cat's job is to call customers and fortune in through the door. That is why it sits at thresholds and beside tills.

Which paw should be raised?

The usual reading is right paw for money and general good fortune, left paw for customers and people. Both-paws-up versions exist and are sometimes considered greedy, though many shops display them regardless.

What do the colours mean?

Calico is the classic and most fortunate, white is purity, black wards off evil and unwanted attention, gold is for wealth, red for health and pink for love. These assignments are modern and commercial, and sellers do not agree on all of them.

Is the lucky cat Chinese or Japanese?

Japanese in origin, from Edo-period Tokyo. It was adopted thoroughly by Chinese communities in the twentieth century and is now most often manufactured in China, which is why so many people assume it is Chinese.

What is the story behind the beckoning cat?

Several compete. The best-known has a feudal lord sheltering under a tree in a storm near Gotoku-ji temple in Tokyo, beckoned over by the temple cat just before lightning strikes the tree; he endowed the temple in gratitude. Imado Shrine in Asakusa claims a different origin. What is documented is that the figures were being made and sold in Edo-period Tokyo by the mid nineteenth century.

Talismans · Luck and welcome

Maneki-neko

Also called: Beckoning cat, lucky cat, fortune cat

A cat with a raised paw, doing a Japanese come-here gesture that most of the world reads as a wave.

At a glance

Origin: Edo-period Tokyo
Name: Maneki-neko, the beckoning cat
Right paw up: Money and good fortune
Left paw up: Customers and people
Usual materials: Ceramic, later plastic with a solar arm
Placed: Facing the door, by the till

The gesture, which is the whole thing

The cat is not waving. In the Japanese beckoning gesture the hand is raised with the palm facing out and forward, and the fingers fold down towards the caller. That is precisely what the cat's paw is doing, and it is why Western viewers read it as a greeting while Japanese viewers read it as come here.

That difference in reading is not trivial. The cat is not saying hello to passers-by. It is calling them in, which is a specific commercial function, and it explains why the object lives at a threshold or beside a till rather than on a household shrine.

Which paw, and what it holds

The standard modern reading assigns the right paw to money and general good fortune, and the left paw to customers and people. Cats with both paws raised exist and are sometimes regarded as greedy or as overreaching, though plenty of shops display them anyway.

Most cats hold a koban, an oval Edo-period gold coin, usually marked with a value of ten million ryō, which is a joke about an absurd sum. Others carry a mallet, a fish, a gourd or a prayer tablet. A bib, a bell and a collar are near-standard, and they descend from how a well-kept house cat was actually dressed in the Edo period.

Colour carries a separate set of meanings, mostly modern: calico is the classic and the luckiest, white for purity, black for warding evil and specifically for keeping stalkers away, gold for wealth, red for health, pink for love. These assignments are commercial and are not consistent across sellers.

Where it comes from

Several origin legends compete, and Tokyo temples have a stake in more than one.

The most-repeated is Gotoku-ji in Setagaya. A feudal lord, sheltering under a tree in a storm, sees the temple cat raise its paw to beckon him over. He moves, and lightning strikes the tree he had been standing beneath. Having been spared, he endowed the impoverished temple and made its fortune. Gotoku-ji today is covered in thousands of small white beckoning cats left by visitors, which is one of the more striking sights in the whole world of amulets.

Imado Shrine in Asakusa claims the cat instead, tied to Imado-yaki pottery and to a story of an old woman told in a dream to make cat figures and sell them. There is a further legend attached to a courtesan in Yoshiwara.

What is documented rather than legendary is that beckoning cat figures were being made and sold in Edo-period Tokyo by the mid nineteenth century, and that they spread from there through Japan and then, with Japanese and Chinese emigration and trade, across the world.

Not a Chinese cat

The maneki-neko is Japanese in origin, though it is now so common in Chinese restaurants, shops and homes worldwide that a great many people assume otherwise. Chinese usage adopted it thoroughly in the twentieth century and gave it Chinese names, and the battery-powered waving version made in China is what most of the world now owns.

There is no restriction on owning or displaying one. It is a commercial object from the start and was mass-produced for sale from its first appearance. The only convention worth keeping is placement: it faces outward, towards the door, because it is calling people in.

How a maneki-neko is chosen and placed

The conventions are commercial rather than religious, and are followed fairly loosely.

Choose the paw for what you want: right for money, left for customers and people.
Choose the colour if you care: calico is the traditional and most fortunate; black is for warding, gold for wealth.
Place it facing the entrance, at or near the threshold or beside the register.
Set it at eye level or above rather than on the floor.
Keep it clean. A dusty cat is bad form in a shop, which is a practical rule rather than a spiritual one.
If you have received one from a shrine, particularly Gotokuji, the custom is to return it there when its year is done.

The waving battery and solar versions are entirely modern and are not considered lesser by anyone in practice. The tradition is comfortable with mass production because it began with it.

What the maneki-neko belongs with

Its purposes and the other counter-side charms.

Questions for reflection

The cat calls people in rather than keeping them out. How many charms do you know that are invitations?
Its origin is claimed by several temples and none of them can prove it. Does a charm need a true founding story?
This one was mass-produced from the beginning. Does that make it less of a charm than a hand-made one?

Frequently asked questions

: It is beckoning, not waving. The raised paw performs the Japanese come-here gesture, palm out with fingers folding down, and the cat's job is to call customers and fortune in through the door. That is why it sits at thresholds and beside tills.
: The usual reading is right paw for money and general good fortune, left paw for customers and people. Both-paws-up versions exist and are sometimes considered greedy, though many shops display them regardless.
: Calico is the classic and most fortunate, white is purity, black wards off evil and unwanted attention, gold is for wealth, red for health and pink for love. These assignments are modern and commercial, and sellers do not agree on all of them.
: Japanese in origin, from Edo-period Tokyo. It was adopted thoroughly by Chinese communities in the twentieth century and is now most often manufactured in China, which is why so many people assume it is Chinese.
: Several compete. The best-known has a feudal lord sheltering under a tree in a storm near Gotoku-ji temple in Tokyo, beckoned over by the temple cat just before lightning strikes the tree; he endowed the temple in gratitude. Imado Shrine in Asakusa claims a different origin. What is documented is that the figures were being made and sold in Edo-period Tokyo by the mid nineteenth century.

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