Maneki Neko

In Japan, shop entrances often have statues of a cat with one paw raised. This is a type of good luck charm called maneki neko, meaning something like "beckoning cat" or "welcoming cat"; in English it's often called "lucky cat". The raised paw represents a gesture meaning "over here" (specifically, the gesture involves holding a hand up, then bending the wrist and/or knuckles forward and back). It may be either the right or left paw that is raised; it's sometimes said that one paw attracts customers and the other attracts money. Often these statues also depict the cat wearing a collar with a bell and holding a golden coin with its other paw.

There are several different origin stories for the maneki neko. One of them involves a nobleman traveling past a rundown temple when he takes shelter from a sudden storm under a nearby tree. The temple's cat beckons him over and he is so fascinated by the gesture that he braves the rain to see the cat up close. Just after the nobleman has left the shelter of the tree it is struck by lightning, and he is so grateful to the cat for saving his life that he makes a huge donation to the temple which becomes well known and prosperous.

Examples of Maneki Neko include:

Anime and Manga

• The eponymous heroine of Madlax has one of these in her hideout.
• An evil version curses a restaurant in Ojamajo Doremi.
• A monster has been trapped inside one so long in Natsume Yuujinchou that it's become his default form.
• Pins depicting the Maneki Neko are used for an extortion racket in Gokusen.
• A maneki neko is seen among the many bizarre objects in Paprika's recurring parade.
• In one episode of Kekkaishi, a maneki neko can be seen among the objects tossed out a window at Kokuboro when Sen is yelling at Yoshimori.
• The GetBackers were once ordered by one of their clients to retrieve one. Subverted in that the Manekineko itself wasn't what the client really wanted, but what was hidden inside it : a disk containing compromising data of human organ traffic. Since she hid this from the Get Backers, this explained why they were puzzled by the fact she was happy to get the Manekineko back, even after it being horribly broken by them during the retrieval.
• R.O.D the TV had one of these featured prominently in Toto Books.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! has a monster that goes by Neko Mane King, an Ancient Egyptian maneki neko statue that ends your opponent's turn if they destroy it.
• In Girl Got Game, one of the side stories involved the Lovable Sex Maniac's girlfriend bringing two of these back from Germany and giving him one, to symbolize their togetherness even though they were apart (it was a long distance relationship).
• In RIN-NE chapter 60, one is among the items that fall when the posessed teddy bear begins to fly.
• In one Fairy Tail omake, Happy impersonated a Maneki Neko statue for a restaurant.
• One is present in a FUNimation Vanity Plate that they begin using in 2011.
• In one episode of You're Under Arrest, there was a burglar who disguised himself as the old woman whose home he was stealing from. One of her friends visits to return a borrowed piece of furniture, and asks where the cat is. The burglar answers that it's outdoors at the moment, and in doing so accidentally reveals himself as an impostor, because the "cat" is actually a maneki neko statue. (This episode changed almost all of the details from the manga version of this storyline, which didn't feature a maneki neko.)
  • In a different episode, Natsumi and Miyuki searched for Maho's lost cat, while Tokuno investigated a theft. Strike Man also heard about the missing cat, so he brought many stray cats and cat-shaped inanimate objects to the police station, and thereby inadvertently recovered the stolen item from the theft case, a maneki neko statue where the "coin" was made of solid gold.
• One of the many Japanese good-luck tokens used against Mara in Ah! My Goddess.

Comic Books

• In the Doctor Strange short serial The Oath, the artifact which opens the portal to the realm imprisoning the demon Otkid is one of these. Doc and Wong find it in a Chinatown curio shop.

Film

• The Ramen Girl - While in the Ramen shop, Abby envisions the lucky cat they have coming to life and beckoning her. She takes this as a sign this is the right place for her to work.

Literature

• The title of a short story by Bruce Sterling.
• In Tamora Pierce's Protector of the Small series, the Yamani have lucky cat statues with one paw raised. The legend was that their Emperor bent down to look at a waving cat just as an assassin's arrow passed overhead - thus the waving cat became a symbol of luck.

Live Action TV

• Referenced in episode 2 of Sherlock, although the subject of a bit of oriental confusion, as Sherlock and Watson find a shop specialising in them in London's Chinatown.
  • It's not a Oriental confusion on part of the writers. The tacky, golden, battery operated version depicted there is frequently seen in Chinese cheap stores throughout Europe.
• At the beginning of the Doctor Who Easter special, Planet of the Dead, Lady Christina de Souza replaces the Chalice of Æthelstan with a Maneki Neko in order to not set off the alarm.
• In an episode of Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, Takeru's soul gets transferred into one of these, resulting in his physical body imitating the statue. When Chiaki draws whiskers on him for good measure, he is not amused (not that he can really voice his complaints, anyway). (In Power Rangers Samurai's adaptation of the episode, this was replaced with a garden gnome - but funnily enough, one with the same raised-arm pose.)
• Given as a gift in an episode of Flash Foward.
• A knockoff version appears in CSI: NY as a vehicle to smuggle cocaine.

Music

• The band Onmyo-Za use a cat-related theme for their Stage Names: Matatabi, Kuroneko, Karukan, Maneki, and Tora

Video Games

• One boss in Nezumi Man is a maneki neko.
• Meowth, from Pokémon is based off this, and plays with the association with financial good luck. It has a gold charm on its forehead, and is the only pokémon who can learn Pay Day naturally - a move which gives a small amount of money (in addition to any money gained from winning) to both combatants after the fight.
• This was one of the thousands of objects the player could roll up in Katamari Damacy. Due to the game's unique sense of humor, these statues could be found in a variety of locations doing a variety of things, such as playing pachinko.
• In the Persona series, these increase your luck.
• In Tales of Vesperia, Rita's Gold Cat spell drops a giant one on the target. The number of hits it deals increases with the amount of money you have, up to a million gald at most.