{"id":78194,"date":"2024-05-31T08:48:02","date_gmt":"2024-05-31T01:48:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/?p=78194"},"modified":"2024-05-31T08:48:02","modified_gmt":"2024-05-31T01:48:02","slug":"the-tiny-island-where-cats-outnumber-humans-and-made-it-a-tourist-destination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/the-tiny-island-where-cats-outnumber-humans-and-made-it-a-tourist-destination\/","title":{"rendered":"The tiny island where cats outnumber humans \u2013 and made it a tourist destination"},"content":{"rendered":"
On a small island off Japan\u2019s northeastern coast, there is an unlikely guardian angel: cats. A shrine to cats on the Japanese island of Tashirojima.\n
The animals outnumber humans on the island of Tashirojima, and there is even a \u201cNeko Jinja,\u201d or cat shrine, to honour their presence.\n
Legend says the island used to be famous for sericulture and farmers would keep cats because they would chase away rats, protecting the silkworm cocoons from the rodents.\n
Fishermen on the island have also traditionally believed that cats bring good luck, including large hauls of fish.\n
Another legend says fishermen used to watch the cats\u2019 behavior for tips on the coming weather before heading to sea.\n
\n
The islanders have long coexisted with the cats. One day, however, a fisherman accidentally injured a cat while working. Feeling sorry for the injury, the islanders built the shrine for cats.\n
Tashirojima is part of the city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi prefecture in the Tohoku region, which became well known after a tsunami devastated the area following a massive magnitude 9 earthquake on 11 March 2011.\n
Over 100 cats inhabit Tashirojima, along with about 50 humans, according to the city\u2019s website.\n
Along a paved road running about 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) between the island\u2019s two ports, cats groom themselves and mingle with other cats.\n
There are a few cafes and inns, but no car rental shops, gas stations or public transportation. Tourists are expected to walk up and down the island\u2019s hills while visiting.\n
Most of the cats are used to tourists, who can be seen petting the friendly animals throughout the island.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The tiny island where cats outnumber humans \u2013 and made it a tourist destination On a small island off Japan\u2019s northeastern coast, there is an unlikely guardian angel: cats. A shrine to cats on the Japanese island of Tashirojima. The animals outnumber humans on the island of Tashirojima, and there is even a \u201cNeko Jinja,\u201d\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":78197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[670],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-78194","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/79.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}