Post by Admin on May 23, 2019 18:23:27 GMT
Meet Yontama, the latest in a line of feline stationmasters that has helped save the Kishigawa railway line in Japan’s Wakayama prefecture, a largely mountainous and rural part of the country famous for temple-studded hillsides and sacred pilgrimage trails.
Over the years, Tama’s sweet nature and photogenic features made her popular with the commuters, and adoring onlookers affectionately began referring to her as Kishi’s ‘stationmaster’. But by the mid-2000s, a combination of low ridership and financial problems threatened to close down the rural rail line, and the line’s 14 stations were finally unstaffed in 2006.
But fortunately, it wasn’t the end for the railway or the beloved feline’s role in it. “In 2006, the current president of the Wakayama Electric Railway, Mitsunobu Kojima, was asked by residents to revive the Kishigawa Line after the previous owner had announced it was to be abolished,” said Keiko Yamaki, an executive for Ryobi, the company that owns the Wakayama Electric Railway. Yamaki explained that the owner of a local convenience store near Kishi Station, who had become Tama’s guardian, had also decided to move on, but before leaving he requested that the railway look after Tama. “Our president has always been a dog person, but when he met Tama that was it,” Yamaki said, while swiping through images on her phone of Kojima happily cuddling the station’s ‘cat master’. “He fell for her.”
In a big way. Soon after adopting Tama, Kojima ordered a customised stationmaster’s hat for his little cat, and in January 2007 he officially named Tama the ‘Stationmaster of Kishi Station’ – the first feline stationmaster in Japan.
As stationmaster, one of Tama’s duties was to be the face of the railway and appear in promotional material and media coverage. She also got paws-on at the station, sometimes greeting passengers from atop a table set up by the ticket gates or from the behind the glass window of her ‘office’ – a converted ticket booth equipped with a litter tray and bed.
Tama was so adored by riders and railway staff that a painted portrait of her was soon commissioned, which now hangs alongside numerous glossy photos of her in Kishi Station’s souvenir shop – where visitors can buy everything from Tama badges and keyrings to Tama-branded candy. In lieu of a ‘salary’, Tama got all the cat food she needed. She received a promotion, too: in 2008, she became a ‘super station manager’ and was even knighted by the prefecture’s governor. In the process, she received a dark blue ceremonial gown with white lace neck ruffles, and thousands of tourists began coming to the small, single-platform station to see her.
In fact, according to a 2008 study by Katsuhiro Miyamoto, professor at Kansai University's School of Accountancy, Tama’s purring presence at the station is estimated to have attracted 55,000 more riders on the Kishigawa Line than were expected in 2007, and during her full reign as stationmaster from 2007 until 2015, she contributed upwards of 1.1bn yen (£7.85m) to the local economy. With the help of its whiskered manager, Wakayama Electric Railway says the annual number of passengers on the Kishigawa Line has increased by almost 300,000 from 2006.
Maybe so. After all, throughout history, cats have been considered to be spiritual animals and a symbol of good luck in Japan. The famous Maneki-neko cat figurines, with their beckoning left paw, are said to bring good fortune to businesses, which has led them to be placed inside storefront windows across the globe. There are also shrines and statues across Japan dedicated to cats – such as Nekogami (Cat God) Shrine in Kagoshima, where two cats were enshrined by a feudal warlord in honour of their military service. More than 10 Japanese ‘cat islands’, where hundreds of felines roam free, have become popular tourist destinations; as have Tokyo’s many pay-to-pet cat cafes. And this is to say nothing of Hello Kitty, one of Japan’s most beloved cartoon characters.
Over the years, Tama’s sweet nature and photogenic features made her popular with the commuters, and adoring onlookers affectionately began referring to her as Kishi’s ‘stationmaster’. But by the mid-2000s, a combination of low ridership and financial problems threatened to close down the rural rail line, and the line’s 14 stations were finally unstaffed in 2006.
But fortunately, it wasn’t the end for the railway or the beloved feline’s role in it. “In 2006, the current president of the Wakayama Electric Railway, Mitsunobu Kojima, was asked by residents to revive the Kishigawa Line after the previous owner had announced it was to be abolished,” said Keiko Yamaki, an executive for Ryobi, the company that owns the Wakayama Electric Railway. Yamaki explained that the owner of a local convenience store near Kishi Station, who had become Tama’s guardian, had also decided to move on, but before leaving he requested that the railway look after Tama. “Our president has always been a dog person, but when he met Tama that was it,” Yamaki said, while swiping through images on her phone of Kojima happily cuddling the station’s ‘cat master’. “He fell for her.”
In a big way. Soon after adopting Tama, Kojima ordered a customised stationmaster’s hat for his little cat, and in January 2007 he officially named Tama the ‘Stationmaster of Kishi Station’ – the first feline stationmaster in Japan.
As stationmaster, one of Tama’s duties was to be the face of the railway and appear in promotional material and media coverage. She also got paws-on at the station, sometimes greeting passengers from atop a table set up by the ticket gates or from the behind the glass window of her ‘office’ – a converted ticket booth equipped with a litter tray and bed.
Tama was so adored by riders and railway staff that a painted portrait of her was soon commissioned, which now hangs alongside numerous glossy photos of her in Kishi Station’s souvenir shop – where visitors can buy everything from Tama badges and keyrings to Tama-branded candy. In lieu of a ‘salary’, Tama got all the cat food she needed. She received a promotion, too: in 2008, she became a ‘super station manager’ and was even knighted by the prefecture’s governor. In the process, she received a dark blue ceremonial gown with white lace neck ruffles, and thousands of tourists began coming to the small, single-platform station to see her.
In fact, according to a 2008 study by Katsuhiro Miyamoto, professor at Kansai University's School of Accountancy, Tama’s purring presence at the station is estimated to have attracted 55,000 more riders on the Kishigawa Line than were expected in 2007, and during her full reign as stationmaster from 2007 until 2015, she contributed upwards of 1.1bn yen (£7.85m) to the local economy. With the help of its whiskered manager, Wakayama Electric Railway says the annual number of passengers on the Kishigawa Line has increased by almost 300,000 from 2006.
Maybe so. After all, throughout history, cats have been considered to be spiritual animals and a symbol of good luck in Japan. The famous Maneki-neko cat figurines, with their beckoning left paw, are said to bring good fortune to businesses, which has led them to be placed inside storefront windows across the globe. There are also shrines and statues across Japan dedicated to cats – such as Nekogami (Cat God) Shrine in Kagoshima, where two cats were enshrined by a feudal warlord in honour of their military service. More than 10 Japanese ‘cat islands’, where hundreds of felines roam free, have become popular tourist destinations; as have Tokyo’s many pay-to-pet cat cafes. And this is to say nothing of Hello Kitty, one of Japan’s most beloved cartoon characters.