Author Topic: Japan mourns passing of Tama, the cat stationmaster  (Read 2760 times)

hubag bohol

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Japan mourns passing of Tama, the cat stationmaster
« on: June 28, 2015, 04:01:29 PM »
Associated Press
29 minutes ago

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

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

Tama died of a heart failure on June 22. During Sunday's Shinto-style funeral at the station where it served, the cat was made a goddess.

Wakayama Electric Railway President Mitsunobu Kojima thanked the cat for its achievement, and said Tama will be enshrined at a nearby cat shrine next month.

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hubag bohol

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Re: Japan mourns passing of Tama, the cat stationmaster
« Reply #1 on: June 28, 2015, 04:03:04 PM »

Tama was known as the stationmaster of Kishi station on the Wakayama Electric Railway in the city of Kinokawa Photo: AFP/Getty

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Re: Japan mourns passing of Tama, the cat stationmaster
« Reply #2 on: June 29, 2015, 12:26:38 PM »



tama died june 22 of a heart failure

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Re: Japan mourns passing of Tama, the cat stationmaster
« Reply #3 on: June 29, 2015, 12:30:28 PM »

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.

-(excerpt from http://news.yahoo.com/japan-mourns-passing-tama-cat-stationmaster-072137565.html#)



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Republic Act 8485 (Animal Welfare Act of 1998, Philippines), as amended and strengthened by House  Bill 6893 of 2013--- violation means a maximum of P250,000 fine with a corresponding three-year jail term and a minimum of P30,000 fine and six months imprisonment

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Re: Japan mourns passing of Tama, the cat stationmaster
« Reply #4 on: June 29, 2015, 01:09:56 PM »

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

-(excerpt from http://news.yahoo.com/japan-mourns-passing-tama-cat-stationmaster-072137565.html#)



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Republic Act 8485 (Animal Welfare Act of 1998, Philippines), as amended and strengthened by House  Bill 6893 of 2013--- violation means a maximum of P250,000 fine with a corresponding three-year jail term and a minimum of P30,000 fine and six months imprisonment

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Re: Japan mourns passing of Tama, the cat stationmaster
« Reply #5 on: June 29, 2015, 01:13:49 PM »

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."

-(excerpt from http://news.yahoo.com/japan-mourns-passing-tama-cat-stationmaster-072137565.html#)



Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=80297.0
Republic Act 8485 (Animal Welfare Act of 1998, Philippines), as amended and strengthened by House  Bill 6893 of 2013--- violation means a maximum of P250,000 fine with a corresponding three-year jail term and a minimum of P30,000 fine and six months imprisonment

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Re: Japan mourns passing of Tama, the cat stationmaster
« Reply #6 on: June 29, 2015, 01:25:04 PM »

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."

-(excerpt from http://news.yahoo.com/japan-mourns-passing-tama-cat-stationmaster-072137565.html#)



Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=80297.0
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Re: Japan mourns passing of Tama, the cat stationmaster
« Reply #7 on: June 29, 2015, 01:29:48 PM »

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

-(excerpt from http://news.yahoo.com/japan-mourns-passing-tama-cat-stationmaster-072137565.html#)


Tama is at the left.  Nitama is at the right.



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Re: Japan mourns passing of Tama, the cat stationmaster
« Reply #8 on: June 29, 2015, 01:33:24 PM »



 In 2006, when Tama became the Kishi stationmaster, the number of passengers on the Wakayama Electric Railway, Kishigawa Line had decreased and authorities were considering abandoning the line. A private company commissioned with reviving the line came across Tama, a cat that was kept in a train station kiosk. Tama was already a popular figure locally and, as the station was going to be unmanned, the decision was made to appoint Tama as the stationmaster. Naturally, it was the first time in Japan railway history a cat assumed such a position.

http://www.halalmedia.jp/archives/222/tama-station-master-saved-train-line-abandoned/

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Republic Act 8485 (Animal Welfare Act of 1998, Philippines), as amended and strengthened by House  Bill 6893 of 2013--- violation means a maximum of P250,000 fine with a corresponding three-year jail term and a minimum of P30,000 fine and six months imprisonment

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Re: Japan mourns passing of Tama, the cat stationmaster
« Reply #9 on: June 29, 2015, 01:56:42 PM »

Tourists flocked to the station as Tama became a hot topic, unique trains such as a Tama train, toy train, and strawberry train were put into service, and character goods also became very popular. In Japan cats are considered an auspicious animal, with a beckoning cat believed to bring luck and happiness, and Tama proved this.

http://www.halalmedia.jp/archives/222/tama-station-master-saved-train-line-abandoned/





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Republic Act 8485 (Animal Welfare Act of 1998, Philippines), as amended and strengthened by House  Bill 6893 of 2013--- violation means a maximum of P250,000 fine with a corresponding three-year jail term and a minimum of P30,000 fine and six months imprisonment

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Republic Act 8485 (Animal Welfare Act of 1998, Philippines), as amended and strengthened by House  Bill 6893 of 2013--- violation means a maximum of P250,000 fine with a corresponding three-year jail term and a minimum of P30,000 fine and six months imprisonment

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Re: Japan mourns passing of Tama, the cat stationmaster
« Reply #11 on: June 29, 2015, 02:08:45 PM »




Seafood, vegetables, fruit are specialties of Wakayama and there is a lot of Muslim friendly food on offer. You can also enjoy juice and gelato made from local fruits at Kishi station. To get there, it’s easiest to take the Kansai Airport Limousine Bus from Kansai International Airport to JR Wakayama Station. If you ride the Wakayama Electric Railway, Kishigawa Line from JR Wakayama Station all the way to the final stop, Kishi, you can meet Tama. Tama works from Tuesday to Friday, while the station is staffed by Nitama, a different stationmaster, on weekends and Monday public holidays. The station is not staffed on regular Mondays.

http://www.halalmedia.jp/archives/222/tama-station-master-saved-train-line-abandoned/



Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=80297.0
Republic Act 8485 (Animal Welfare Act of 1998, Philippines), as amended and strengthened by House  Bill 6893 of 2013--- violation means a maximum of P250,000 fine with a corresponding three-year jail term and a minimum of P30,000 fine and six months imprisonment

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islander

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hubag bohol

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Re: Japan mourns passing of Tama, the cat stationmaster
« Reply #13 on: July 09, 2015, 07:34:30 PM »
The cat’s miaow

Tama, stationmaster of Kishi station and vice-president of the Wakayama Electric Railway, died on June 22nd, aged 16

http://www.economist.com/
Jul 4th 2015


AS SOON as she was born, Tama-chan (“Little Treasure”) knew she was divine. Most cats presume it; she was sure of it. Her immediate situation—whelped by a stray in the workers’ waiting room at Kishi station, on a rural railway line in western Japan—did not augur brightly. But as soon as her eyes opened, she saw what she was. Rolling languorously on her back, she admired her white underside; delicately twisting her neck to wash, she noted the black and brown bars on her back. She was a tortoiseshell, or a calico cat to Americans. They had been four in the litter; only she carried the propitious marks.

Tortoiseshells had long been prized in Japan. In another age she would probably have been a temple cat, leading a contemplative life among maple and ginkgo trees, killing mice and, in exchange, earning the regard of monks and pilgrims. Tales were legion of poor priests or shopkeepers who had shared their few scraps with the likes of her and had, in return, found riches. Or she might have been a ship’s cat, since tortoiseshells had the power to keep away the ghosts of the drowned, whose invisible bodies filled the sea and whose flailing, imploring hands were the white crests of the waves. But Tama, being modern, preferred trains.

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Re: Japan mourns passing of Tama, the cat stationmaster
« Reply #14 on: July 09, 2015, 07:35:20 PM »
In 21st-century Japan the mystic power of her breed was still invoked everywhere. Children wore tortoiseshell charms as amulets to keep them well. Nervous students cramming for exams put pictures of cats much like her on their bedroom walls. Most ubiquitous of all, the Maneki-neko, or beckoning cat (almost always a tortoiseshell), waved outside shops, restaurants and gambling parlours to draw customers in. These plastic cats stared rudely at one and all, where she appraised people with a green-eyed and sleepy gaze; their paws sawed up and down, where she made a virtue of curled immobility. In betting places they held up big gold coins to show they could bring good fortune. With a combination of punctuality, divinity and good manners, she achieved the same.

She was trained young by her mother, Miiko, outside the grocer’s shop by Kishi station. They would laze there in the sun to bewitch passers-by into suddenly needing a bag of rice or a bottle of mirin, and in exchange the grocer, Toshiko Koyama, gave them food. The bargain seemed a good one; the grocer prospered. Tama, too, grew sleeker as she improved her powers.

From there, it was only natural that she should save Kishi station. The little halt sat on a line, nine miles long and with 12 somnolent stops, between Wakayama City and Kishigawa. By 2006 it was losing 500m yen ($4m) a year. It should have been closed, but the customers said no; so it was sold to the Wakayama Electric Railway, which laid off the last man at Kishi to try to save some money. Mr Koyama became informal station-keeper, and the next year Tama was appointed stationmaster.

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Re: Japan mourns passing of Tama, the cat stationmaster
« Reply #15 on: July 09, 2015, 07:36:24 PM »
A train with whiskers

She kept strict hours: 9am to 5pm on weekdays, with only Sundays off. In exchange she was given a stationmaster’s cap in her own size, always worn at a jaunty starlet angle; a stationmaster’s badge; as much tinned tuna as she could nibble at; and eventually her own office, with basket and litter-tray, in an old ticket booth. The work was not demanding; if it had been, she would have disdained to take the job. But by snoozing most of the day on the ticket barrier, or rubbing against the legs of passengers as they arrived, she increased traffic on the branch line by 10% in her first year. People would travel just to be greeted by her smooth and lucky purr.

As the years passed more and more people came to the station, and rode on the train, because of her. Tourists flocked from all over Japan. The president of the WER thought she had probably injected more than a billion yen into the local economy. In 2009 a special bewhiskered cat-train, the Tama-densha, began to run on the line, covered with cartoons of her and with her image all over the seats. The next year the station was rebuilt in the shape of her head, with dormer windows for her eyes, and a café opened up with her portrait iced on cupcakes. A shop offered Tama bags, notebooks, key-fobs and figurines.

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Re: Japan mourns passing of Tama, the cat stationmaster
« Reply #16 on: July 09, 2015, 07:37:59 PM »
She took all this with equanimity. According to the Japanese principle of promotion by seniority, she rose effortlessly to super-stationmaster and honorary division chief. She was made an operating officer of the WER in recognition of her contribution to profits, the first female to be so honoured, and then became company vice-president. Each step was accompanied by gatherings of her devotees, presentations of certificates and extra stripes on her cap. Coolly tolerant, she allowed herself to be dressed in a velvet cloak with lace and white plumes, and to be hoisted in the air by jubilant WER executives.

At her funeral, attended by thousands at the station, the president of the railway company announced that she would be honoured as a goddess and buried in a Shinto shrine. Honour where honour was due. Meanwhile, her deputy Nitama (“Tama the Second”) assumed her duties at the station; and the Tama-densha ambled on down the line, joined now by the Toy Train and the Strawberry Train, as her worshippers in suits continued to follow the moneymaking path pointed out by the beckoning cat of Kishi, Tama the Divine.




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