#cat stationmaster

[gwydionmisha]

Japan Has a New Cat Stationmaster: Meet Yontama

It’s a great day to be a cat lover. Wakayama Electric Railway has just welcomed its newest employee for the next feline stationmaster.

[deweydecimalchickens]

I have been to Tama's station!

Nitama, current stationmaster and high priest of Tama Daimyojin:

The first Tama has been enshrined as Tama Daimyojin, the goddess of the railway line, and has an entire museum train dedicated to her (it's fancy) as well as the normal Tama Train (cute as hell). I no longer feel like I'm overreacting in my grief over Mimi. This is how cats should be remembered.

[hopsii]

Meet Nitama, new stationmaster at Japan's Kishi Station - CNN.com

New appointment is the first graduate of the Cat Stationmaster Training School and a top-notch protege of the late Tama.

New appointment is the first graduate of the Cat Stationmaster Training School and a top-notch protege of the late Tama.

[btrandkittens]

Baby Tama-chan and her mommy, Miko-chan :3

[btrandkittens]

celebrating the memories of Tama-chan :3

Tama-chan is famous for being the very first cat stationmaster in Japan (and perhaps in the whole world). From being a stray cat who was adopted, she was hired by the then-ailing Wakayama Electric Railway Company in 2007 as stationmaster of Kishi Station.

Tama-chan the cat then saved the railway company from bankruptcy by bringing in around US$10M in revenues. The company and the community were grateful to Tama-chan that they promoted her as Super Stationmaster, and then as Ultra Stationmaster, and even as Deputy President of the corporation! :3

And as she reached her twilight years and eventually passed away in 22 June 2015 at the age of 16, or 80 in human age, Wakayama Electric and the community of Kinokawa held a formal Shinto funeral, attended by at least 3,000 people and covered by both local and international media, and Tama-chan was elevated by Shinto priests as a goddess.

Tama-chan is one badass lady cat! :3 May her memory be eternal… :3

[btrandkittens]

The late Stationmaster Tama (and Apprentice Stationmaster Nitama on the left at top pic)

From ‘We Love Tama Channel’ on YouTube

[btrandkittens]

Domo arigato gozaimasu! Sayonara, Tama-sama!

Cat stationmaster Tama mourned in Japan, elevated as goddess

By

MARI YAMAGUCHI

Jun. 28, 2015 1:47 PM EDT

TOKYO (AP) — Tama the stationmaster, Japan's feline star of a struggling local railway, was mourned by company officials and fans and elevated into a goddess at a funeral Sunday.

The calico cat was appointed stationmaster at the Kishi station in western Japan in 2007. Donning her custom-made stationmaster's cap, Tama quietly sat at the ticket gate welcoming and seeing off passengers. The cat quickly attracted tourists and became world-famous, contributing to the railway company and local economy.

Tama, who had turned 16 in April, died of a heart failure on June 22. During Sunday's Shinto-style funeral at the station where she served, Tama became a goddess. The Shinto religion, indigenous to Japan and practiced by many Japanese, has a variety of gods including animals.

In one of several portraits decorating the altar, Tama posed in a stationmaster's hat and a dark blue cape. Sake, as well as watermelon, apples, cabbage and other fruits and vegetables were presented to the cat. A stand outside the station was heaped with bouquets, canned tuna and other gifts left by thousands of Tama fans who came to pray from around the country.

Wakayama Electric Railway President Mitsunobu Kojima thanked the cat for her achievement, and said Tama will be enshrined at a nearby cat shrine in August.

Before Tama's arrival, the local Kishigawa Line was near-bankrupt; and the station was unmanned as it had lost its last staff.

Kojima said appointing Tama as stationmaster was initially an excuse to keep the cat at the station.

"But she was really doing her job," he said. The rest was a miracle, and his company's success story also gave hope for dozens of other struggling tiny local train lines, he said.

"Tama-chan really emerged like a savior, a goddess. It was truly my honor to have been able to work with her," Kojima said in his speech.

During her tenure, Tama had contributed an estimated 1.1 billion yen ($8.9 million) to the local economy, Kojima said.

Kojima said that when he visited Tama at an animal hospital the day before she died, the cat woke up and reached out to him with her paws, as if asking for a hug, and looked straight into his eyes. He said he told Tama to get well so they can celebrate the cat's upcoming 10th anniversary as a stationmaster, and said the cat responded with a "meow."

Tama is a popular name for cats in Japan, where they are considered spiritual animals. The word could translate as treasure, ball or spirit.

The cat had climbed the corporate ladder from stationmaster to "ultra-stationmaster" and vice president of the company before receiving the additional title Sunday of "honorable eternal stationmaster."

Tama will be succeeded by another calico cat, Nitama, now an apprentice stationmaster.