ISLANDS OF CATS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 60, 3 June 1942, Page 5

ISLANDS OF CATS

NOVELTIES OF JAPAN Many superstitions and! legends are associated with cats in Japan, and many arc the unique stories related about the feline inhabitants of some of the Japanese islands. Literally a cats' paradise, no dogs are allowed on the island of Tashiro in Rikuzen, for should any one bring a dog to its shores he would at once incur a curse. Likewise, dogs are prohibited on Shikine Island in Izu, a tiny islet which until fifty years ago was uninhabited save for its numerous feline residents. Ivurokami is another island on Avhich dogs- are not allowed. In my opinion, one of the reasons why dogs are not allowed on these islands is because of the old custom of using them for burial places. According to this custom, coffins were placed on the ground so that the corpses might naturally decompose and thus return to dust."Accordinglj*, it Avas necessary to keep animals away from the coffins, and 110 place could be more suitable for this purpose than small islands.

But such convenient localities as .small, uninhabited islands were 1 not always available, and no doubt for this reason new methods of inhuming and cremating the dead were later devised. Dogs were especially kept away, not because they did greater harm than wolves or foxes, but rather because they walked about towns and villages: without fear. Thus probably originated the taboo against taking dogs to these small islands. When the original reason became somewhat obscure, the sup-* erstition spread that there were animals hostile to dogs on such islands, such as cats, for it was believed' that cats possessed some strange supernatural power that would punish any one who brought a dog to one of these islands. It is axiomatic, of course, that dogs and cats do not get along well together, but this is not sufficient to explain why an island where dogs are not allowed should become an island of eats. Most of the old stories relating tO' cats point out that these animals make their homes ill defiance of their masters. On the island of Old many people believe that cats go and live in the hills. When outdoors, catsi east only other animals. No foxes are found on the island, and strange to say, their roles are enacted by cats 1 which live in all mountain, passes and lonely woods. Cats keep watch beside lonely paths. Fishmongers are often' frightened out of their wits by them and robbed of their fish. Near Akune, in the north-western corner of Satsuma, there is a region C'f rice fields which recently became famous suddenly as a place J where cats gather. By law the place is a bird sanctuary, ami it was forbidden to keep dogsi in the neighbouring villages. Then a strange thing happened. The cats in the neighbourhood left their homes and became "vagrant cats." They fed' on the smaller birds. During their period of vagrancy they became fat, but when spring passed audi the smaller birds flew away, the eats returned to their homes: and became as lean as: before.