At Wakayama Station, the route to an unlikely railway celebrity began with pawprints. Travelers looking for Kishi Station could follow Tama’s little cat marks toward the Kishigawa Line, then ride out through Wakayama’s countryside to meet a station master who wore a custom hat and was paid in cat food.[1][2]

In 2007, Wakayama Electric Railway named Tama, a calico cat at Kishi Station, as station master of the struggling Kishigawa Line. Her appointment drew visitors, boosted ridership, and helped turn a near-closure local railway into a cat-themed destination.

The Kishigawa Line runs 14.3 kilometers between Wakayama Station and Kishi Station in Kinokawa, a short local route through rural Wakayama Prefecture.[3] By the early 2000s, it had the familiar problem of many small railways: declining ridership and serious financial trouble.[3] In 2004, Kishi Station was close to being shut down because too few people were using it.[1]

Beside the station was a grocery store run by Toshiko Koyama, who had acted as an informal station manager and cared for stray cats living around Kishi Station.[1][2] One of them was Tama, a female calico born in Kinokawa.[2] When station changes and road work threatened the cats’ shelter, Koyama asked Wakayama Electric Railway president Mitsunobu Kojima to let them stay inside the station. Kojima agreed, seeing Tama as a maneki-neko, the Japanese beckoning cat associated with good fortune.[2]

A Cat With a Job Title

On January 5, 2007, railway officials officially gave Tama the title of station master.[2] Her duties were simple: greet passengers and see them off.[2][5] Her annual pay came as cat food, plus a gold name tag on her collar listing her name and position.[2] A station master’s hat was designed to fit her, a process that took more than six months.[2]

People came to see the cat in uniform. After media coverage, Tama’s popularity grew quickly, and Kishi Station became a place travelers visited on purpose rather than a quiet stop at the end of a local line.[1][5] The railway had found a mascot, but the appeal was stranger and more specific than a logo. Tama was there in the station, wearing the title, meeting passengers as the train doors opened.

Reports credit Tama with a sharp increase in ridership and a major lift for the local economy. Zooming Japan says she contributed “a few billion yen” to the area, while Japan Travel cites estimates of more than a billion yen.[1][5] The exact total varies by account, but the sources agree on the pattern: after Tama became station master, more people rode the Kishigawa Line, visited Kishi Station, and bought Tama merchandise.[1][5]

The Railway Followed the Cat

In January 2008, Wakayama Electric Railway promoted Tama to Super Station Master and converted a disused ticket booth into an air-conditioned office for her.[5] In 2010, she was promoted again to operating officer, and another cat, Chibi, became her assistant.[1]

Kishi Station changed around its most famous employee. The rebuilt station building was shaped like a cat’s head, and drawings of Tama appeared across the station.[5] The line also became known for themed trains, including the cat-themed Tama Train.[5][6] The attraction was no longer just the cat at the end of the ride. The ride itself had become part of the cat story.

Tama died on June 22, 2015, at age 16.[1][2] The railway continued the tradition with Nitama as her successor, followed by later feline stationmasters on the line.[1][4] Visitors still arrive at Kishi Station looking for the legacy of the cat who helped save it, after following pawprints, boarding a 14.3-kilometer train, and ending up at a station built around a small calico in a custom hat.

Sources

  1. Zooming Japan: “Station Master Tama The Cat”
  2. Wikipedia: “Tama (cat)”
  3. Wakayama Travel: “Wakayama Electric Railway Kishigawa Line’s unique train and cat stationmaster ‘Tama’”
  4. Wakayama Authentic Trip: “The Kishigawa Line: The Local Railway Saved by a Cat”
  5. Japan Travel: “Kishigawa Line”
  6. Rail Japan: “Kishigawa Line”