Cat Power?

March 28, 2008 2:17 PM

Every time I've ever dined at a sushi restaurant there's been a statue of a cat by the cash register. It's always the same pose, with one paw raised in the air in a kind of "cat power" salute. What are these called and what do they signify?
posted by reidfleming to Society & Culture (13 answers total)

Best answer: They're wishing you good luck!.
posted by headspace at 2:18 PM on March 28, 2008 [1 favorite]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maneki_Neko
posted by disaster77 at 2:18 PM on March 28, 2008

Google search for "cat statue sushi restaurant" leads to this Wikipedia article: Maneki Neko.
posted by Banky_Edwards at 2:19 PM on March 28, 2008

Maneko Neko
posted by fire&wings at 2:19 PM on March 28, 2008

He was the original model for Hello Kitty,
posted by pearlybob at 2:40 PM on March 28, 2008

I've heard these referred to as a money cat (as ref'd in the wiki article), and it's supposed to bestow visitors with money and good luck.
posted by slogger at 2:46 PM on March 28, 2008

Lucky cats! There's a real fat one in my kitchen. And I think if they're gold as opposed to white, they mean something other than luck.
posted by thebellafonte at 2:51 PM on March 28, 2008

White -- the traditional. Good luck.
Gold -- Money. I keep one in my office (I teach consumer economics) as a joke.
Pink -- Love.

The colors are recent. The white one is traditional and reflects the "mi-ke" calico pattern, a favored pattern in Japanese bobtail.
posted by lleachie at 3:36 PM on March 28, 2008

BTW, the cat is not waving, it is "beckoning". Mine is solar powered, and beckons customers, $ ....
posted by R. Mutt at 3:40 PM on March 28, 2008

They're the symbol of an underground gift network:
Tsuyoshi lifted his arm and offered a hand signal, his fingers
clenched like a cat's paw. The man showed no recognition of the gesture.
Tsuyoshi shrugged, and smiled. "It doesn't matter. Sometimes a man
really needs a coffee. Now you have a coffee. That's all."
"Well..." The man cautiously sipped his cup, and suddenly smiled.
"It's really great. Thanks!"
"You're welcome." Tsuyoshi went home.
posted by juv3nal at 4:47 PM on March 28, 2008 [2 favorites]

The origin story I was told was different from those in the Wikipedia entry, and seems (to me) to be more explanatory as to why restaurants display the maneki neko in particular: A small, struggling restaurant owner was on the verge of closing his business, when he started getting visited by a stray cat. Not having any human customers, he started throwing the cat leftover ingredients, which caused the cat to become a regular fixture in his doorway. People walking past the restaurant noticed the cat had a peculiar habit. Staring out at them from the doorway, the cat would gesture with his paw, and either out of curiosity or by interpreting the gesture as a signal to "follow me," people started stopping in. They would ask about the cat, and then sit down to have a drink or order some food. After a while, the increased traffic and the gesturing cat made the restaurant a novelty and ended up saving the business. Some years later the cat passed away, and the grateful restaurant owner carved a statue as a tribute to his furry benefactor. There it would sit in the doorway, paw upraised, beckoning to potential customers as he had done in life.
posted by krippledkonscious at 5:07 PM on March 28, 2008 [3 favorites]

Most of the Maneki Neko material I've read refers to a background story of a monk saved from a storm by a beckoning cat. The beckoning gesture in Japan and China is with the palm down, as opposed to the western version with the palm up--hence the Cat Power salute.

On a personal note, I have a collection of Maneki Nekos or Super Happy Fun Cats, as I like to call them. The different colors can symbolize different purposes, as previous commenters have mentioned. Black cats, for instance, keep away evil spirits.
posted by Kafkaesque at 5:18 PM on March 28, 2008

More on the Lucky Cat.
posted by bwg at 6:04 PM on March 28, 2008