Neighbourhood Tokyo, Japan
Cats in Yanaka
Tokyo’s "cat town": a low, old neighbourhood that survived the bombing, five minutes from a Yamanote line station, where the cats live in the cemetery and the shops sell nothing but cats.
Where to find cats in Yanaka: Yanaka, on the Taito and Arakawa border in north Tokyo, five minutes from Nippori Station. When: Late afternoon, so the shops are open, the cemetery cats are out, and you end on the steps at sunset. Why here: It is old Tokyo, low and wooden, and the cats are part of the reason it stayed that way.
The short version
- Where
- Yanaka, on the Taito and Arakawa border in north Tokyo, five minutes from Nippori Station
- When
- Late afternoon, so the shops are open, the cemetery cats are out, and you end on the steps at sunset
- How long
- Two to three hours. Longer if you go looking for all seven carved cats
- What it costs
- Nothing. The cemetery and the street are public. Bring coins for a croquette
- Why here
- It is old Tokyo, low and wooden, and the cats are part of the reason it stayed that way
What to bring
- Small changeYanaka Ginza is croquettes, taiyaki and cat-shaped everything, and most of it is a few hundred yen, cash.
- A late-afternoon startThe shops shut around six and the sunset from the steps is the whole point of their name.
- PatienceThe cemetery cats are shy. Sit on a bench and they come out. Walk at them and they do not.
- Quiet shoesIt is a working cemetery with people visiting graves. Treat it like one.
Why there are cats everywhere
Yanaka was never bombed, and that is why it still has cats.
Most of Tokyo burned in 1945 and was rebuilt in concrete. Yanaka, for reasons nobody can fully explain, was largely spared, so it kept its wooden houses, its temples, its narrow lanes and its enormous cemetery. Wooden houses have gaps under them. Temples have quiet grounds. Cemeteries have cover and nobody chasing you. Cats stayed because there was somewhere to stay.
The shopping street, Yanaka Ginza, grew up just after the war: about sixty small shops along a hundred and seventy metres, butchers and greengrocers and a fish shop, the kind of street that has vanished from most of the city. Somewhere along the way the neighbourhood noticed its cats, and the cats became the brand. There are seven wooden cats carved by students of the Tokyo University of the Arts hidden along the street, on shopfronts and awnings. Finding all seven is supposed to be lucky.
It is honest to say the branding has outrun the animals. The shops are wall to wall cats; the actual cats are in the cemetery, the temple grounds and the back lanes, and there are fewer than there were a decade ago. This page is about the real ones. The carved ones are a bonus.
The cemetery is the heart of it. Yanaka Reien is a public cemetery of about ten hectares, open all hours, with a long avenue of cherry trees down the middle. The cats live in it. So does the last shōgun.
The walk
Out of Nippori Station, down the sunset steps into the shopping street, back up through the temple to the cemetery, and finish on the steps as the sun goes. About two hours, in a loop.
- From Anywhere on the Yamanote lineTo Nippori Station, west exit, then five minutes on foot5 minNippori is also on the Keisei line from Narita Airport, which makes this a good first afternoon in Tokyo.
- From The Chiyoda subway lineTo Sendagi, then five minutes east5 minComes out at the shopping-street end of the walk. Do it in reverse and finish at the station.
- From UenoWalk north through Ueno Park, past the museums25 minNezu Shrine is on the way if you come this side.
Yūyake Dandan, the sunset steps
Five minutes from the station, the road ends at a wide flight of stone steps looking west down the shopping street. This is where the neighbourhood watches the sun set and where the first cats used to gather. Come back here at the end.
The view from the top of the steps. Face this way at sunset.SuFlyer, CC0 Yanaka Ginza
A hundred and seventy metres of small shops, about sixty of them, most older than the people running them. Cat goods everywhere: Neco Action and Nen-nekoya are the two to go into. Eat a croquette. Look up for the seven carved cats.
Neco Action. Open eleven to six. The sign is not subtle.Stephen Kelly from San Francisco, CA, USA, CC BY 2.0 Tennōji
Back up the hill and left, a temple founded in 1274 with a bronze Buddha in the yard. It sits on the edge of the cemetery and the cats use it as a front door. Quiet, and free.
Tennōji, on the cemetery’s edge. Where the cats come and go from.Guilhem Vellut from Annecy, France, CC BY 2.0 Yanaka Cemetery
Through the gate and down the cherry avenue. The cats are in here, in the shade between the plots. Sit on a bench near the middle and wait; they come out when the path is empty. It is open all night, but go while there is light.
The cemetery cats. Shy, but not very.Guilhem Vellut from Annecy, France, CC BY 2.0
Same numbers as the list. Worth keeping open on your phone.
The cats you will meet
Fewer than the shops suggest, and shyer than the ones in Istanbul or on the islands. They are cemetery and temple cats, used to quiet people who sit still, and not to crowds. The neighbourhood feeds them; you do not need to.
Japanese bobtails
Short kinked or pom-pom tails, often calico or white and orange.
The old Tokyo cat. Cheerful, and the model for every maneki-neko in the shops.
Tabbies
Grey or brown striped, medium build.
The most common cemetery cat, and the hardest to see against the stone.
Black cats
All black, green eyes.
Well represented, and lucky here rather than the opposite.
Everybody says Yanaka is full of cats.
Actually Yanaka is full of cat shops. The cats themselves live in the cemetery, the temple grounds and the back lanes, and there are fewer than there were ten years ago. Go for the neighbourhood; the cats are the reason to slow down in it, not a guarantee.
How not to be the annoying one
- It is a cemetery first. People are visiting graves. Keep your voice down, stay on the paths, and do not climb on anything.
- The cats here are shy. Sit, and they come. Walk towards one and it leaves.
- You do not need to feed them and the neighbourhood would rather you did not. Somebody already does.
- No flash in the cemetery, and no flash in anybody’s shop.
- The shops close around six. Buy the croquette before then.
