Maneki-neko

(Movie)

Maneki-neko is a Japanese word meaning chat happiness. It means a statue traditional Japanese ceramic or porcelain, representing a cat sitting and lifting the leg at the level of the ear, and that frequently found on the front of the stores near the crates in malls, in the pachinko halls, and so on.

Maneki comes from the verb maneku, which in Japanese means, invite (in the sense of bringing) or hail. Neko is the cat. It is literally the "cat calls." Traditionally, we put one of these cats lifting the leg in stores to attract capital (money). The lifting leg varies depending on whether the cat is supposed to attract the customer or do spend more money in the store: the left leg is supposed to attract customers, the money right leg. There are cats lifting both legs and rarely fours.

There are often maneki neko-in homes, particularly in the form of clips, key holder or other objects.

The gesture
For Americans and Europeans, the maneki neko-seems to say "goodbye" rather urge. This is simply the differences between the gestures used in Japan and the West: the Japanese call by raising your hand palm forward and falling and falling fingers several times as a gesture of-maneki neko. Some cats designed specifically for the West Palm turned backwards, in a gesture of invitation most familiar to Westerners.

The maneki neko-can raise the right foot or left foot, sometimes both. The meaning of each leg varies depending on the region and the time. The most widespread belief asserts that the left leg lifting attracts customers, while the right leg attracts fortune and luck, but some people say the opposite. For others, the leg is better left closed for bars, the right foot for other businesses. (This belief can be combined with the fact that in Japan, those who are well drink nicknamed hidari-kiki which means "left-handed".)

It is generally believed that more the cat pin high rises, the more it attracts luck. Consequently, the legs of maneki neko-have become increasingly high with the times, and some can even guess at the time of a maneki neko-up to its leg. It is sometimes said that over the cat pin high rises, the greater the chance comes from afar.

Some maneki neko-have a leg electric, powered by a battery or a solar collector, which moves constantly repeating his gesture of welcome.

The color
There are maneki neko-all kinds of colors. If they were probably that the original decorative, nowadays, it is associated with certain attributes; again, interpretations vary.

* Habs: The cat is white with black spots and redheads. This color is regarded as a powerful good-luck is the most popular color for-maneki neko. This may come to the rarity of the color among Japanese bobtails, the breed of cat that serves as a model for-maneki neko. In Japan, they call this color mid-ke, "triple fur."
* White: White is a symbol of purity, it is the second most popular color.
* Black: The maneki neko-blacks are supposed to provide health and avert evil spirits. They are especially popular with women because they are supposed to keep attackers. As the red, black may be associated with health, but it is rare.
* Red: Red is a color of protection that is supposed to remove the evil spirits and disease.
* Gold: Gold is associated with wealth.
* Rose: It is not a traditional color, but nowadays it is popular and coupled with love.
* Green: Green is associated with a successful school and university.

The necklace, the bib and the bell
The maneki neko-often something around his neck, it might be a scarf or a scarf, but in most cases it is a red collar with a bell and a decorative mudflap. These objects probably mimic ornaments worn by the rich cats homes in the Edo era. The red necklaces made from a red flower, hichirimen, were decorated with small bells that were used both to decorate and to be aware of the movements of a cat.

The bib could also be linked to those that often adorn the statues of the deity Jizo Bodhisattva. There are protective of Jizo statues at the entrance of temples and cemeteries Japanese. Jizo is the protector of the sick and dying children, and parents of children are cured adorn the statues of Jizo a bib as a token of appreciation.

The piece
The maneki neko-are often represented with a big gold coin, called koban, used in Japan during the Edo era. A koban worth an ryo, another former Japanese currency, but the koban worn by most maneki neko-is marked as worth ten million ryo. A ryo was worth some thousand dollars, even if the value of the coin, like the dollar, has varied considerably.

This play is strongly in the role of provider of fortune-maneki neko. It is not surprising that we find maneki neko-piggy, a practice that goes back at least to 1890, as the pig piggy West.

Sometimes, small coins are deposited alongside maneki neko-as offerings. This practice comes close to the custom of throwing coins in a fountain or a well wishes to.


History
Even if one believes that the first-maneki neko appeared at the end of the Edo era (1603-1867) in Japan, the first documented evidence comes from the 1870's, during the Meiji era. Cats are mentioned in a newspaper article dated 1876, and there is evidence that maneki neko in kimono-were distributed in a temple in Osaka at the time. An advertisement in 1902 for maneki neko-indicates that at the beginning of the 20th century, they were popular.

Before that, the origins of maneki neko-remain unclear.

It assigns a story to several Japanese emperors, as well as Oda Nobunaga and samurai Naotaka Ii: one day the character met a cat that seemed to him to sign. Believing that it was a sign, the noble approached the cat. He was diverted from its path and realized he had avoided a trap that he tended a little further. Since that time, the cats were regarded as wise minds and create good luck. Plusieus temples and houses in Japan contain the figure of a cat with a paw as if lifting welcomed. That would be the origin of maneki neko-often called neko kami.

One theory connects the origin of maneki neko, or at least its popularity, the rise of the new Meiji government. In its attempts to Westernize Japanese society, the government ban talismans with sexual connotations, often displayed in brothels. After the demise of these talismans, maneki neko-took their seats as door-happiness, perhaps because their gesture of invitation recalls inviting a woman to enter the house password.

Others have noted the resemblance between the act of maneki neko-and that of a cat doing her toilet. An old Japanese belief says that if a cat rubbing his face, a visitor will happen, and a Chinese proverb even older (also known in the West) says that if a cat rubbing his face, it's going to rain. So it is possible that we believe can attract visitors with a statue of cat rubbing his face.

It is not known when the maneki neko-have become popular in the United States, but they were known there at least 1963, when the Patricia Green mentioned in his book, The Cult of the Cat. Nowadays, the maneki neko-is very present in Chinatown in New York. Street vendors and street shops sell many varieties of this cat, which are purchased mainly by tourists. They are often purchased for the folklore.

Legends
There are many versions about the origin of this tradition, here are a few:

* The cat Temple: A group of samurai (or in some versions, a feudal lord) passed in front of a temple in front of which prélassait a cat. While samurai stopped to watch the cat, the latter, sitting on his séant, "greeted" by lifting his leg to his ear. Intrigued, the samurai came near the cat. That's when the lightning fell exactly where they would have had they diverted their course to meet hi to the cat. Very appreciative, they made donations to the temple once they have become rich.

* The courtesan: A courtesan named Usugumo, who lived in Yoshiwara to the east of Tokyo, had a cat she loved very much. One night, the cat began to capitalize on its kimono. What to do, he continued. Seeing this, the owner of the brothel believed that the cat was bewitched and décapita. The head of the cat flew to the ceiling and crushed a serpent who was there, ready to strike at any moment. Usugumo was collapsed by the death of his cat, and for the console, a customer had a statue made of wood of his companion. This statue was the first-maneki neko.

* The old woman: An old woman who lived in Imado to the east of Tokyo was forced to sell his cat to survive. Very quickly, her cat appeared to him in dreams. He said to his statue in clay. She obeyed, and then sold the statue. Thereafter, it will fit other, and people bought. The statues became so popular that the old woman became rich through them.

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