Cat (neko)

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Cat (neko)

***** Location: Japan
***** Season: Nonseasonal Topic
***** Category: Animal

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Explanation


http://darumasan.blogspot.com/2005/03/washi-japanese-paper_31.html

The cat, with no further explanation, is man's best friend during the whole year. There are however seasonal events in a cat's life that come as a kigo. Let us look at them.

.. .. .. Kigo for early spring:

love-season for cats, neko no koi 猫の恋、koi neko 恋猫
cat in heat, cats mate, neko sakaru　猫さかる
cat in spring, haru no neko 春の猫（はるのねこ）
philandering cat, ukare neko 浮かれ猫
"cats walking to their lovers", kayou neko 通う猫（かようねこ）

a cat's mate : according to the Chinese character it is written in, it can be the male or female partner,
neko no tsuma 猫の夫 (male) 猫の妻 (female)

cat going hunting for a girlfriend, imogari yuku neko
..... 妹がり行く猫（いもがりゆくねこ）
pledge of a cat, neko no chigiri 猫の契（ねこのちぎり)

pregnant cat, harami neko 孕み猫（はらみねこ）


kigo for late spring

mother cat giving birth, neko no san 猫の産（ねこのさん）

kitten, neko no ko 猫の子
small cat, koneko 仔猫（こねこ
parent of a kitten, neko no oya 猫の親（ねこのおや）, oyaneko 親猫（おやねこ）
cat with kittens, komochi neko 子持猫（こもちねこ）



February 22 is "the Day of the Cat"
The Japanese cat's voice is "nyan!"
So, this is play of words, 2.22 (nyan, nyan, nyan)




- photo : Japan Lovers, facebook -

spring adventures -
getting old
gracefully

Gabi Greve, April 2015

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cats at the hot spring / Utagawa Yoshifuji 歌川 芳藤

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kigo for all winter

kajike neko かじけ猫 (かじけねこ) cat is all stiff
(because of the cold)
haineko, hai neko 灰猫（はいねこ）neko in the ashes
(the hearth was a warm place in an old farmhouse)
kamado neko 竈猫（かまどねこ）neko in the hearth
hekkoi neko へっつい猫（へっついねこ）
kotatsu neko 炬燵猫（こたつねこ）cat in the kotatsu


My Cat Haiku Kun, by Gabi Greve

. Kotatsu, the heatable table 　　



kotatsu neko -
another kigo
to brighten my day !


ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo


.. .. .. Plant Kigo for Autumn:

"toy for cats", neko jarashi, nekojarashi 猫じゃらし
giant foxtail, Chinese foxtail, Chinese millet
Setaria faberi, Setaria viridis.
giant bristlegrass, nodding foxtail

enokorogusa　狗尾草 , えのこぐさ "fox tail plant"
..... inukogusa 犬子草（いぬこぐさ）"small dog plant"
murasaki enokoro 紫えのころ（むらさきえのころ）violet
kin enokoro 金えのころ（きんえのころ） golden
hama enokoro 浜えのころ（はまえのころ）on the beach




Of the rice family, with a thin stem and a tail of about 10 cm. It is used to make cats or small dogs try to catch it.
During the Edo period, its name was "dog tail", but children also used it to play with cats, and with time the name changed.


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Worldwide use

Katze, Kater


門司ヶ関人形工房

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Things found on the way

Do not miss the Interview with Haiku kun
the honorable vice director of our World Kigo Database.
Japan Times, December 17, 2005


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Manekineko, the Beckoning Cat 招き猫
This is a special symbol for good luck in Japan and a nice present for the New Year.

Here is my story about this auspicious cat.
http://darumadollmuseum.blogspot.com/2005/01/cats-and-daruma.html

Gabi Greve



. Join the Manekineko on facebook ! .

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. neko Jizo 猫地蔵 Neko Jizo. "Jizo with Cat" .

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九谷焼鏑木商舗 Kutani ware - Kaburaki
. soroban 算盤 / 十呂盤 / そろばん Abacus calculator .


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Japanese cats with NO tail . Find the Explanation here.


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Nekomata – The Split-Tailed Cat
by Zack Davisson



Kamakura Period –
The Nekomata of the Mountains
Most Japanese yokai were born during the Edo period, but the nekomata has more ancient roots. Mention of the nekomata first appeared during the Kamakura period (1185-1333), where it was mentioned in the literary jottings of Yoshida Kenko in his scroll Tsurezure-gusa (徒然草; The Harvest of Leisure, also known as Essays in Idleness). Yoshida wrote “Deep in the mountains there is a creature called the nekomata. It is said that it feeds on humans.” At around the same period, Fujiwara Sadaie recorded in the scroll Meigetsuki (明月記; The Record of the Clear Moon, sometimes called Diary of the Clear Moon) that on August 8th in the first year of Tenpuku (1233) in Nanto (modern day Nara prefecture) a nekomata from the mountains killed and ate several people.

MORE
source : hyakumonogatari.com


Kaibyo: The Supernatural Cats of Japan


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HAIKU

- - - - - Matsuo Basho

麦飯にやつるる恋か猫の妻
mugimeshi ni yatsururu koi ka neko no tsuma

Has it been from love as well as barley rice
that it has grown so scrawny?
cat's mate.
Tr. Kawamoto


A cat's wife -
grown thin from love
and barley?
Tr. Shirane


from barley gruel
and from love it looses weight ?
the cat in love
Tr. Gabi Greve


Warum schreit die kleine Katze?
War der Brei ihr nicht sanft?
Oder ist sie verliebt?

Fur die Katzen-Zunft Messkirch
Am 21. Februar 1954 / Martin Heidegger
. Martin Heidegger .

This hokku has the question marker KA at the end of line 2.



source :　itoyo/basho
Gunma, Temple 正幸寺 群馬県前橋市三河 正幸寺

麥めしにやつるゝ戀や里の猫
三日月や広いそらにも曲て置
source :　satoneko.html


Written in 元禄4年, Basho age 48.

MORE
hokku about food by
. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .



MORE - about cats
張抜きの猫も知るなり今朝の秋
またうどな犬ふみつけて猫の恋
猫の恋やむとき閨の朧月
猫の妻竈の崩れより通ひけり
山は猫ねぶりて行くや雪の隙
. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .


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love season for cats -
the neighbours daddy too
returns in the morning

neko no koi - tonari no papa mo asa-gaeri

oo oo oo

cat and the mouse
taking a nap -
autumn solitude



See: Gabi Greve and Haiku Kun

If you want to see more of Haiku kun and his mother, check this:
Cats in Paradise, Japan

If you want to see more of Haiku kun, my sleeping cat, check this:
Haiku Kun, his Album.

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spring roof --
cats' community band
sawing the night in two

scrap-heap --
dining gracefully
a stray cat

Read more of Origa's haiku here:
http://thegreenleaf.co.uk/HP/Duets/Olga/00olgahaiku.htm

And check out Cat haiga ~ by Origa (Olga Hooper)
and more haiga


geocities.com/origaboston/OrigaHaiga


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Muthurwa stalls-
houseflies buzzing on
a decomposing cat

Andrew Otinga
Kenya, February 2011


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. . . CLICK here for more cat kokeshi dolls こけし !

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- - - - - Kobayashi Issa - - - - -


嗅で見てよしにする也猫の恋
kaide mite kaide miru nari neko no koi

they sniff each other
sniff each other...
the lover cats
Tr. David Lanoue


年の内に春は来にけり猫の恋
toshi no uchi ni haru wa ki ni keri neko no koi

the year's not over
but spring comes anyway...
cats making love
Tr. David Lanoue


Robin D. Gill points out that the first 13 syllables of this haiku are taken from Ariwara-no-Motokata's waka--the first song of the ancient Kokinshuu collection.

Comment by Lary Bole, Translating Haiku:　 　　　

I think this refers to the fact that due to adjustments that had to be made in the old Japanese lunar calendar, to keep it reasonably "accurate," sometimes the official day on which spring
started fell before the official start of the new year; so that sometimes a single year would have two official starts of spring, one near the beginning of the year, and one near the end. In an analogous way our modern calendar can sometimes have two full moons in the same month.

Jane Reichhold discusses this phenomenon in relation to the earliest known haiku written by Basho:

haru ya ko shi / toshi ya yuki ken / kotsugomori

Preface: "Today we have the first day of spring in spite of the date."

has spring come
or the year gone away?
end of December


Reichhold goes on to comment:

This is the oldest dated verse by Basho that we presently have. In his lifetime, the Japanese calendar was based on the phases of the moon so that the month began with the new moon, continued with the full moon on the 15th night and ended in the dark of the moon.

As with our solar calendar, adjustments had to be made to keep the calendar in sync with the skies. Thus, in 1663, instead of the first day of spring arriving on New Year's Day, as was normal, it was marked as beginning two days earlier.

Though this verse was written on what our calendar today would be the 7th of February, it referred to the last days of the old year, so it makes more sense to adjust the last line from "Second-Last Day" to end of December. This phenomenon had been commented on by poets since olden times as is shown by the link between Basho's verse and especially the one written by Ariwara Motokata (888-953) that opens the imperial anthology, Kokin Waka Shuu

(before the year ends / spring has already come / left-over days / how shall we name them? / the old or the new year?").
http://www.ahapoetry.com/basharc/abasbk1.htm

"年の内に春は来にけり一年を去年とや言はん今年とや言はん"
toshi no uchi ni haru wa ki ni keri
hitotose o nizo ya iwan
kotoshi to ya iwan

sniffing and looking
looking and sniffing
the lover cat


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. WKD : Kobayashi Issa 小林一茶 in Edo .


女猫子ゆへの盗とく逃よ
onna-neko ko yue no nusumi toku nige yo

female cat
stealing for your kittens
quick, run away!
Tr. Chris Drake

This hokku was written in the 8th month (September) of 1823, three months after Issa's wife Kiku wife has died. Issa sees a mother cat filching something (human food?), and he also seems to see that a human or dog or some other creature is approaching. He's obviously very concerned and warns the cat that she needs to leave what she's doing and return to her kittens immediately. It's hard not to feel that Issa's natural feeling for the cat and her kittens has been deepened by the loss of his wife and three infant children as well as by the bad health of his infant son Konzaburo, who will die in the 12th month of this year.

One puzzle is why Issa calls the mother cat simply "female cat." This is Issa's only hokku to use "female cat." In the previous two hokku in his diary he uses "mother cat."
Here's the previous hokku:

haha-neko ya nusumi shite kite ko o yobaru

mother cat
back with stolen goods
calls her kittens

The mother cat has apparently brought back some food and is making loud calls to her scattered kittens, so the use of "mother cat" is natural. Why, then, does Issa uses "female cat," literally "woman cat," in the first hokku above? Is he implying that a male cat is approaching and that he doesn't want the mother cat to forget about her kittens? September is the last month of the mating season, and even nursing cats are known to get pregnant. Or could Issa be suggesting that female cats and female humans are similar in the way they care for their young?

Chris Drake


庵の猫しゃがれ声にてうかれけり
io no neko shagare koe nite ukare-keri

husky-voiced
the cat in the house
floats elsewhere

This hokku is from the 2nd month (March) of 1817, when Issa was traveling around just east of Edo. He writes "the hut," a standard polite, humble expression meaning "the house," so he seems to be referring to one of the houses of his students or followers where he is staying temporarily during his trip. The cat could be either male or female, since both are in rut in spring, though females wail more when they are in heat, while males caterwaul continually for various females. In any case, the cat comes and goes, and even when it's home it makes guttural, feral sounds that seem husky-voiced to Issa. The cat is no longer simply domestic, and it "floats" or is carried away to another world by its overwhelming desire.

Chris Drake


oo-neko ya yobidashi ni kite tsukuri-goe

yama-neko mo tsukuri-goe shite shinobikeri

. SEE : tomcat's fake voice - Chris Drake .


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Related words

***** Voices of Animals, neko no koe 猫の声


. ANIMALS in all SEASONS - SAIJIKI



street performance in Edo　江戸の猫　






source : rakuten.co.jp/haimuraya

猫飼好五十三疋 Cats and the 53 stations of the Tokaido
歌川国芳 Utagawa Kuniyoshi

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A cat dressed as a Buddhist monk
watches a rat in the claws of a hawk.
Okubo Tadanobu, 1765

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Samurai walking his cat




Oda Nobunaga and his cat


from the Sekighara no Neko Ningyo-Kan Museum


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mari neko まり猫 cat on a temari hand ball
Yamagata

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