(Voice actor) Mr.David Radtke

Do you know a character called Maneki-neko? It is a cat raising either the right or left paw that seems as if beckoning someone. It is said to bring good luck and fortune when displayed. You may see them in stores like restaurants and bars. The Maneki-neko is actually deeply associated with a famous Japanese samurai. That famous samurai is Naotaka Ii. Naotaka Ii was one of the warlords who worked for Ieyasu Tokugawa. The army of the Ii family had a distinctive feature.　The Ii army soldiers, including the general Naotka Ii, all wore uniform red armor. This was called akazonae (*red equipment) and was reserved only for the strongest soldiers to wear. An army of red would stand out, visible from distance in battle fields. It would be obvious if they were losing or defeated, meaning they were always expected to win the battle. Another attribute of the red armor is that it hid injuries from the others’ eyes. So they were forced to keep fighting even if they were injured. From Naotaka Ii down the entire heirarchy, all the samurai of Ii family kept battling with all their might. The army of Ii was called the “red demons” for their bravery, feared by enemies and trusted by the allies. As a result of the continuous battles, Naotaka Ii was awarded the largest territory among the warlords of the Tokugawa clan, and became the domain lord of the Hikone domain with a castle in Omi (current Shiga prefecture). Naotaka Ii did not slack off from daily training even after the war time was over. One day he went out to hunt as a part of training. There was a sudden heavy rain on his way home. He looked for a place to take shelter from the rain. He found a huge tree with thick leafy branches. It was in a temple called Gotokuji. Some sort of animal appeared in Naotaka’s sight when he was waiting for the rain to die down. Naotaka watched it carefully and realized it was a cat. The cat in the rain was posing as if it was beckoning Naotaka. Naotaka took an interest in this mysterious cat. He approached the cat but it did not run from him. Even more interested, Naotaka moved closer to the cat. Mindless of being already out of the tree’s shade and getting rained on, he moved toward the cat. Then…. What do you think happened to Naotaka? Why did the cat beckon him? This story tells the origin of Maneki-neko. Read on and enjoy!