Maneki Neko

Road trips to tea shops are fun, but a bit dangerous to the wallet. Of course I had a postcard to get 10% off. I also only shop there a few times per year. I brought a friend with me this time, and it was great fun. We stopped at Big Lots fist. She hadn't been to one in years. She said that she had to take a picture of it and text it to her sister. They used to go to Big Lots together when she lived in Oklahoma. I started laughing and had to explain that when I visited a Big Lots store recently I had to text a picture of it to my sister because we both liked shopping there. I guess it's the store for sisters. Then we went out for tea. A lot has changed since the plague began. Unfortunately we could not order pots of tea to share, we could only get our tea in disposable cups. They also had a lot of new tea ware (they always do). I fell in love with a cup from Japan.

I decided to look up the story of the beckoning cat. The first resource I found was a blog. It seems that the most widely told story was that a poor monk had a cat that he loved. One day he asked the cat to bring him luck. A large storm blew into the region, and the local lord took shelter under a nearby tree. As he was waiting for the storm to pass, he saw a cat in the door of the temple waving to him. He left the tree to go to the temple to take a closer look, and a bolt of lightning hit the tree and knocked it over. The lord was so thankful to the cat for saving his life that he gave the land around the temple to the monk. After the cat died, a statue was made of the waving cat. There's also another story that is less pleasant. I have linked it in case you want to read it. Colors have different meanings. Calico cats bring the highest luck because they are more rare, white brings happiness, purity, and positive things. Gold is for wealth and prosperity, red for success in love, black to ward off evil spirits, and green for good health. Meanings do vary slightly by which resource you read. Some cats also hold things, and those objects have meaning, too. A raised right paw is for money, a raised left paw is for invitation and welcoming. Apparently both paws raised is a modern variation that means nothing. Also the height of the paw symbolizes how much luck the cat will bring. I didn't even realize the cats on the cup were waving until I got home. So, since I have some new teaware, I had to try it out. Since it is cloudy, windy, and cold outside, I decided to set up my tea with a book of Japanese prints for something beautiful to look at.