Unimpressed Tokyo cat
Photo by ivva
Almost everyday coming home from work in Tokyo, I encounter a stray cat.
Rumor has it that someone in another department stole one of the most beloved stray cats in the area. How someone “steals” a stray cat, I’m not sure, but that’s what I was told.
Something that bothers me even more is: why are there so many stray cats in Tokyo?
Still smarting from being hissed at today by one of the neighborhood felines, I took to the ‘Net.
The Tokyo Stray Cat Law
According to an essay about cats in Japan, in 1602, the Tokugawa Shogunate made a proclamation that stated:
* All cats inside the capital shall be taken off their ropes and released
* The trade of cats is hereby prohibited
I seriously doubt that the Edo-era shogun had animal welfare in mind when posting this notice. After all, without their own version of William Wallace, cats didn’t have anyone to represent them in opposition to the then-fashionable practice of putting cats on a rope. At the same time, surely this wasn’t some nefarious and highly ineffective scheme to wipe out all cats in Japan?
FREEEEEDOM!!!
Photo by necoco
The most likely answer seems to be that in rapidly-urbanizing Japan, officials wanted to make certain that food supplies and valuable works of art weren’t eaten by rats. Rats back in the old days must have been classy to be nibbling on works of art.
Is this the answer to our question about Tokyo stray cats?
“Not so!” declares one Japanese feline fancier’s website. Instead, the strayification of cats in Japan began with the import of cats from overseas during the prosperous times after World War II.
Unfortunately, the romantic idea that a declaration passed in the Edo period is the reason behind all the stray cats in Tokyo today just doesn’t hold water.
Happily, though, with the Tokugawa shogunate being over, we can now take our cats for a walk without fear of repercussions.
