In the Tokyo suburb of Setagaya, there is a quiet park home to the Gōtoku-ji “Welcome Cat” Temple.
Its quiet, pagoda-dotted grounds attract a host of people: local parents, looking for a place to let their kids play; tourists looking for the ultimate Instagram opportunity by posing next to the shrine’s army of cat sculptures; and devote Buddhist pilgrims, chanting, clapping, and ringing bells as part of their prayers.
As the legend goes, back in the 1400s, Gōtoku-ji was more a humble hut than a temple, shared by a monk and his cat. Struggling to survive, the monk asked his four-legged friend to bring him prosperity. The cat responded by waving in several samurai, who, eager to escape a rainstorm, accepted the monk’s offer of tea and shelter. The travelers took such delight in the monk’s teachings, one revealed himself to be Naotaka Ii, lord of Hikone, in the Koshu prefecture. In return for his host’s kindness, he donated rice fields and crops to the temple, allowing it to grow into the force it is today.
Today visitors still arrive in search of luck granted by Maneki Neko, the beckoning cat (or at the temple pragmatically words it, “the opportunity for luck”). But even if one doesn’t completely buy into the conceit, it’s difficult not to enjoy the visually dazzling, inclusive, and all-together welcoming environment of Gōtoku-ji Temple.