(Voice actor) Mr.David Radtke

Since the old days in Japan, cats have been believed to possess some mystical powers. Nabeshima was the family name of the lord of the Hizen domain (current Saga prefecture). The Nabeshima family used to be one of the vassals of a feudal lord, Ryuzoji. However, Nabeshima took over Ryuzoji’s position and became the feudal lord, so the Ryuzoji family held a grudge against the Nabeshima family. The Ryuzoji family died out in disappointment and chagrin. This Ryuzoji family had a cat they loved dearly. This cat turned into a beautiful princess and was received into the Nabeshima family. Then she brought on one disaster after another to the Nabeshima family. In the end, her true shape is exposed and she was slain. This story has been widespread in Japan as the folk legend of Bakeneko (*demonized cat). Also, a cat that lived more than 10 years was said to be as intelligent as a person. People in the old days thought of cats as mysterious creatures. Cats had been beloved pets since the old days, and this is reflected in the Japanese saying “doting up a cat” which means to adore someone, or an animal, more than anything. Sasuke, a carpenter in Kanda district of Edo was one of those cat lovers. After losing his wife at a young age, a cat named Tama was all his love. He treated her not as a pet but as family. After a day’s work, Sasuke always stopped at a fish store to buy Tama her favorite fish. Eventually, Tama started to come meet him halfway, and they often shopped and went home together. They were like a father and a child. But Sasuke met the misfortune of losing his eyesight from an eye disease. He became blind. Sasuke was a carpenter, and carpenters can’t work without their vision. He could no longer cut and plane the wood, or hammer the nails, and he became homebound. No doctor nor medicine helped him. Doctors gave up on his sight for there was no improvement. Sasuke lost his vision and consequently his way of living as a carpenter. Losing his income, he could no longer go out and get fish with Tama. “Sorry, I can get you no more fish,” Sasuke apologized to Tama in his sickbed. And he usually cried himself to sleep. While Sasuke was asleep, Tama licked his eyelids as if to console him. She kept licking the sleeping Sasuke’s eyes for ever and ever. Then, a miracle happened.