Tama (cat)

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Tama (2012)
Tama with service cap and name badge (2007)

Tama ( Japanese た ま ; born April 29, 1999 in Kinokawa ; † June 22, 2015 in Iwade ) was a cat who lived at the Kishi train station in Kinokawa in the Japanese prefecture of Wakayama . She achieved national fame when the local railway company officially appointed her "station master". Due to further promotions, she reached the second highest post of the railway company as "Deputy President" in 2013. After her death, she was recorded as a kami .

Appointment as "station master"

Mīko and Tama in the background (2007)
"Office" of the station master at Kishi Station (2008)

The mother Mīko ( ミ ー コ ; 1998–2009) of the tortoiseshell cat was a stray who had been brought to the train station by a cleaner. Tama was regularly fed by the grocer Toshiko Koyama, who was located in the immediate vicinity of the train station, and remained there. The Kishi Train Station is the terminus on the 14.3 km long Kishigawa Line , which starts from Wakayama Station to the northwest . It is the only line operated by the Wakayama Dentetsu (English: Wakayama Electric Railway ).

Due to financial losses, Wakayama Dentetsu moved all of its staff from the stations from April 2006. The Kishigawa Line was making an annual loss of $ 4.9 million at the time, and the number of passengers dropped to 5,000 a day or 1.9 million a year. To cut costs, employees were recruited from nearby shops. In the case of Kishi Station, this was done by Toshiko Koyama, who was still looking after the cats at the station. The railway company heard of the cats and in January 2007 formally appointed seven-year-old Tama "station master " (ekichō) , while two other cats were named as their deputies. These were Chibi ( ち び ; * 2000) and her mother Mīko, who died in 2009. In order to distinguish Tama from the other two animals, an official cap of the railway company was specially tailored for her. The cat was later given a gold nameplate.

Successful marketing

Tama in a knight's robe
The train "Tama Densha" designed after the cat

Japanese media reported on the cat, as a result of which the number of passengers on the Kishigawa Line increased significantly. In the month of January these rose by 17 percent compared to the previous year. In March 2007 an increase of ten percent to 2.1 million passengers was recorded compared to the previous twelve months. Tama watched the daily arriving trains and travelers, the latter saw in her a good luck charm. Officially, she “worked” Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and received cat food as a “reward”.

In January 2008 the cat was appointed by Wakayama Dentetsu to the "Oberbahnhofsvorsteherin" ( ス ー パ ー 駅 長 , Sūpā ekichō , English Super Stationmaster ). In the 36-man company, she became the only female manager or holds the fifth-highest position after the title. This "transport" was accompanied by the establishment of a separate "office", a disused ticket sales counter in the train station, which was equipped with scratching posts and a litter box and was officially opened in April 2008 by the mayor of Kinokawa and the head of the railway company. According to a study published in autumn 2008, the cat had a turnover of 1.1 billion yen (approx. 7.5 million euros) in 2007 through the sale of children's books and promotional items as well as a television appearance. The profit from the television appearance alone amounted to 280 million yen (approx. 2 million euros). The idea was then partly successfully taken up by other Japanese railway lines, which introduced cats, but also dogs or rabbits as "station masters". International media also became aware of the animal, including the US television channel CNN dedicated a television report to the "10 million dollar cat" at the end of October 2008. At the same time, Tama was named "Knight of Wakayama" by the governor of the prefecture for her "contribution to the positive economic effects and because of her charm"和 歌 山 県 勲 功 爵（わ か や ま で ナ イ ト）, Wakayama de naito ).

Renovated station building (August 2010)

In April 2009, Myriam Tonelotto reported in the combined ARTE documentary and cartoon cat lessons (La voie du chat), among other things, on the phenomenon. At the same time, a new train called Tama Densha started operating on the Kishigawa Line. The train is decorated with comic motifs from Tama. Later a tram was painted in the same way. The 4.5 kg heavy cat was last appointed in early January 2010 by the railway company as a "managing director" ( 執行 役 員 , shikkō yakuin ). A short time later, Tama was temporarily "decommissioned" so that the Kishi train station could be renovated and a new facade could be given, which is supposed to remind of Tama's face. The construction was completed in early August 2010.

In January 2013, Tama was promoted to "Vice President" (shachō-dairi) of the company.

death

The cat died of a sinus infection on June 22, 2015 at the age of 16. The funeral, attended by thousands of people, took place on June 28, 2015 at Kishi Station. She was honored with a funeral with 3,000 mourners in the Shinto style and with the posthumous title of "Eternal Station Master , Honorary" ( 名誉 永久 駅 長 , Meiyo eikyū ekichō ). On August 11, 2015 the incarceration as Nekogami Tama daimyōjin ( た ま 大 明 神 , "very sublime deity Tama") in the Neko-jinja ( ね こ 神社 , "cat shrine") at the train station.

Tama's successor, "Nitama", in English Tama, the second , who had been Tama's official apprentice since January 5, 2012, is now taking over her duties.

Web links

Commons : Tama  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.asahi.com/articles/ASH6S5V2CH6SPXLB00Y.html
  2. ↑ 和 歌 山 電 鉄 の 「た ま 駅 長」 死 ぬ . (No longer available online.) In: 共同 通信 47News. June 24, 2015, archived from the original on April 12, 2016 ; Retrieved April 12, 2016 (Japanese). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / this.kiji.is
  3. ↑ a b c d cf. Yamanaka, Toru ( AFP ): Japanese railway turns to feline 'stationmaster' for help . May 25, 2008 1:41 AM GMT
  4. ↑ cf. Yamaguchi, Mari ( AP Online ): Cat helps debt-strapped Japanese train . May 26, 2008, 1:04 PM GMT
  5. ↑ cf. UPI : Cat named stationmaster . Jan 14, 2007 at 7:09 PM EST
  6. ↑ Link, Christoph: Mascot Tama . In: Stuttgarter Zeitung , May 30, 2008, p. 3
  7. ↑ This conductor's got a cat's tongue. In: Independent Online. May 25, 2008, accessed November 2, 2010 .
  8. ↑ AFP : Tama is the purr-fect antidote to financial gloom: study . October 5, 2008, Tokyo, 6:46 AM GMT
  9. ↑ Other animal stationmasters in Japan ( Memento of the original from April 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at japanprobe.com, November 19, 2008 (accessed March 29, 2010) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.japanprobe.com
  10. ↑ 名誉 駅 長 に 白 ウ サ ギ 白 兎 道 の 駅 、 愛称 を 公募 中 . In: nnn.co.jp. June 5, 2009, archived from the original on July 22, 2010 ; Retrieved April 24, 2013 (Japanese).
  11. ↑ CNN Newsroom News Log , October 30, 2008, 12:00 PM EST (accessed March 29, 2010 via LexisNexis Economy )
  12. ↑ 知事 記者 会見 . (No longer available online.) Wakayama Prefecture October 21, 2008, archived from the original April 16, 2009 ; Retrieved March 30, 2010 (Japanese). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.pref.wakayama.lg.jp
  13. ↑ New tram feeds on feline craze at japantimes.co.jp, May 1, 2009 (accessed March 29, 2010)
  14. ^ Cat 'station master' to take vacation. In: asahi.com. January 18, 2010, archived from the original on June 20, 2010 ; accessed on April 24, 2013 .
  15. ↑ NHK News 7, April 24, 2013: 「た ま」 駅 長 が 社長 代理 に 昇 進
  16. ↑ ス ピ ー ド 出世 だ に ゃ ん 和 歌 山 た ま 駅 長 「社長 代理」 に . In: Asahi Shimbun Digital. January 6, 2013. Retrieved April 24, 2013 (Japanese).
  17. ↑ Japan mourns the stationmaster Tama. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , June 25, 2015, accessed on June 28, 2015 .
  18. ↑ 和 歌 山 電 鐵 、 「た ま 駅 長」 の 社 葬 を し め や か に。 そ し て 名誉 永久 駅 長 に に 任命 た ま 大 明 神 と し て 貴志 駅 の 神社 に る ら れ れ れ れ れ れ れ れ . In: ト ラ ベ ル Watch. KK Impress, June 28, 2015, accessed April 12, 2016 (Japanese).
  19. ↑ Justin McCurry: Tama the cat: 3,000 attend elaborate funeral for Japan's feline stationmaster . In: The Guardian . June 29, 2015 ( online [accessed April 12, 2016]).
  20. ↑ Tama-chan: The cat's miaow . In: The Economist , July 3, 2015.