Maneki-neko 招き猫 (Part VII) : Fujisan --- The Golden Opportunity Cat

From the very first time I set my sight on the Golden Opportunity Cat, I knew that he was mine.

 

Once again, I acquired this Maneki-neko 招き猫 from Siri Paradise with a wide smile plastered to my face when I place him next to Koban, another of his senior & hopefully, would serve as his mentor.

I observed that the porcelain tone of this cat isn't as white as compared to Sakura & Le-Petit's.  He had a sort of light grayish undertone to his white porcelain.

Nevertheless, the pricing was a lot lower than the rest of products I have bought from Siri Paradise.   As such, it's value for money given the quality as you could see in the upcoming video clip I did for the cat.

The auspicious symbols are of great significance to those of us who have career ambitions in mind.  The brinjals, fish, golden flower petals, etc ...

As such, I was very happy to have him at home.




In view of the many Maneki-neko 招き猫 at home, I ran out of ideas in naming him.  After much contemplation, his name was inspired by the symbols of Japan's great Mount Fuji on both sides of his chubby body - Fujisan.

It was said that Mount Fuji got its name from the word "immortality", which surprisingly is written as 不死 and read as pu-see in Japanese.

There were also other auspicious symbols, such as the brinjals & fish, found on Fujisan which had me sold on him when Jacy of Siri Paradise first showed him to me.

And Fujisan is also outfitted with a gold-tone bell at the collar, which my Maneki-neko 招き猫would never be perceived as complete should it be without it (bell).

Fujisan is fashioned in a crouching position such that he was pouncing onto a gold-tone bell which was in fact sewn onto his collar.

I was surprised to learn from Jacy that this bell isn't just there for decorative purposes.  It signifies golden opportunities knocking on his owner's door and grabbing them at every chance when they come rolling our way!

Before penning off, I would like to share the following photographs on Fujisan :

Isn't Fujisan a darling?  ( ^.^ )

By the time I pen-off this write-up on Fujisan, I'm already panting with exhaustion & exhilaration.  With Hubby Dearest overlooking from the back of my shoulder and shaking his head ...

Maneki-neko 招き猫 (Part VI) : Couple Cat Figurine

I first spotted this couple cat figurine on taobao.com while I was surfing through the internet few weeks ago.

I didn't realise that Siri Paradise has this item until Jacy showed it to me during her visit to my home.

 

永浴爱河 (Yong Yu Ai He) was what Jacy said to me when she showed me this pretty couple cat figurine.  It's a Chinese idiom for conjugal bliss which meant "to bathe in a river of love forever".

 

We "glorified" the couple cat figurine by placing it right amongst our wedding photographs that were displayed in photo frames of all sizes.

 

 

We also did a video clip of this couple cat figurine by placing it on a revolving platform. 

It's my second video but I'm a bit disappointed by the outcome because the video looked a bit blurry.  *sigh* :( 

I suspected that it could be a result of editing & conversion into a file that's acceptable on Youtube that compromised the video quality ... The video clip which I recorded using iphone looks really sharp & clear though.
 

Anyway, here are more photographs of the couple cat figurine :

Stay tuned for my next write-up on the Golden Opportunity Cat! 

Coming soon in the next episode of Maneki-Neko ...

Maneki-neko 招き猫 (Part V) : Solar-powered Cat --- by Kimura Ohshido (from Siri Paradise)

I bought this solar powered cat on the same day as Le Petit from Jacy of Siri Paradise.  It's another high quality Japanese craft from Kimura Ohshido in Japan.

 

 

 

It's a cute little thing that's great for those of us who had a soft spot for small & kawaii (adorable) stuff such as myself.

 

I did a video clip on this solar powered cat.  However, it seems amateurish as it's the first video I have created.  I'm hopeful that my video editing techniques would be more polished in the near future.

 

Here comes my humble video (^.^) ...

 

Jacy had mentioned to me that the supplier claimed that the solar powered cat is going to last forever.  I'm hoping that it lasts too as it's such an adorable-looking thing to fall in love with & laugh at it each time I set eyes on it!   ( ^ . ^ )  ... And it's also because of the somewhat hefty price tag that came with it too ...

 

The cat's ticking tail derives its energy from a mini solar strip (I think it's known as a solar cell) that's found on solar powered calculators which are commonly found in stationery stores.

We were very surprised that this item has a very sensitive mechanism such that the cat would start wagging its tail in an upward motion swinging from side to side under natural light.  The windows are more than 3 meters away from the solar powered cat's location & yet, the cute kitty cat would start ticking its tail like a metronome for musicians.

I observed that the cat would start wagging its tail gradually after 7 AM in the morning & start picking up its speed within half an hour, maintaining its "wagging speed" all the way past 6 PM in the evening.  That's a good 12 hours of tail swinging every day! ;)

As you could see from the photograph, the product is certified to be made in Japan with a set of serial numbers.

Jacy has other designs of solar powered cats & dogs which are a lot larger in size & in a stand-alone design up for grabs.  Not as dainty as this version that I bought but still worth buying especially for avid fans of  Maneki-neko 招き猫!

Ganbatte! 頑張って !

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Disclaimer:

Kindly note that this blogging article is created strictly for the purpose of sharing my humble & objective views of products sold by the aforesaid company.

 

I am not affiliated to Siri Paradise or Kimura Ohshido mentioned in this blogging entry. 

 

Reader's discretion is therefore sought when viewing this thread and making any purchases with the sellers.

 

Thank you for your kind understanding.

Maneki-neko 招き猫 (Part III) : Sakura --- Candid Camera

Sakura is currently seated right on my desk & I can't deny the fact that she is indeed adorable looking and too eye-catching to be neglected by anybody seated at the desk or standing nearby.

 

She has received lot's of compliments from visitors with her plump figure & those colourful auspicious symbols adorning her white porcelain body.  The pretty smile on her face makes me smile & laugh at times.  Kawaii!

 

I had taken several snapshots of Sakura and used Pilxr.com to edit a couple of them, playing around mostly with the tone of colour for these photographs...

 

 

 

If there are any new photographs of Sakura that are worth uploading after fanciful editing, I would be uploading in this blogging entry.

 

So for those of you who are interested, please stay tuned for more photographs (if any) in the near future...

 

ありがとう! (Thank You)

 

Maneki-neko 招き猫 (Part II) : Sakura --- Two's a company, Three's a crowd or a charm?

This is a sequel to Maneki-neko 招き猫 (Part I) where I have mentioned acquiring two porcelain fortune cats, namely a male & female.

Shortly after purchasing this cat couple and placing them on top of our shoe cabinet, I had been wanting to stop at just 2 relatively large fortune cats (19 cm & above) to avoid clutter in our home.

However, I couldn't resist this purchase when I came across such a cute lil' cat & ended up buying a supposedly up-market version of fortune cat which came with a certification.

 

I am happy with my purchase even though the seller has mentioned to me that it was a display set & I proudly present this new addition to our humble family of fortune cats.

As you could see from the photograph above, I bought another she-cat. 

She comes with certification.  Apart from the certificate, there are no serial numbers identifying the cat and no engravings that gives rise to any indication that it's made in Japan.

Bearing in mind that I am new to the world of fortune cats, I am ignorant where accreditations & authentications of such products are concerned. 

The bottom of the cat looks like this with a red stamp that's embossed onto the white porcelain:

* (I kept the fortune cat in the box that came with it after a tired day of photography & am simply too lazy to bring it out again.  As such, I used the photograph that had been sent to me on iphone by seller during the negotiating process prior to purchase.)

Nevertheless, I am a willing buyer whose happy with my purchase.  And the seller, Serene, is a personable & approachable young lady whose a very young & budding entrepreneur.

For those of you who are willing to pay more for fortune cats, please touch base with Serene at the following link:
http://www.olx.com.sg/japanese-fortune-cat-iid-309181135

For easy reference, I would refer to this she-cat as Sakura since she is adorned with Sakura embellishments from top to toe.

Despite being a display set, she's in great condition.  The 2 huge jingle bells are also looking good without any tarnishing that's visible to myself & Hubby Dearest.  She's definitely a worthy addition to the family.

 

Sakura's body is pretty well-made but smaller built as compared to Peony.  Weight-wise, she is also heavier than Koban though lighter than Peony.

Like in Peony & Koban's case, Sakura came to us with a quintessential accessory - a cushion pillow for her to sit on.  While I didn't notice any difference to the fabric between her pillow & that of Peony's, Sakura's was larger & thicker as I guess that there's more polyfill found in there.

Sewing for Sakura's pillow differed too.  The centre of her fat pillow had a depression made using a bunch of red threads that were tied into a dead knot (right at the top) where Sakura would be sitting on.  Please refer to the photographs for illustrations.

If I do a comparison of Sakura & Peony by placing them side by side, I could see an obvious difference to the colour tone of white porcelain.

Sakura looked really white whereas Peony's white porcelain had a creamy tone to it.  Sakura seemed to "glow" a lot more in her pristine coat of white porcelain even though Peony had a thicker glaze painted over her body. 

I had tried my best to capture this colour difference between the white porcelain for both she-cats in this photograph but the difference is a lot more obvious in reality:

Let's take a closer look at the embellishments that are found on Sakura.

Bells
The huge jingle bells that Sakura are carrying are characterised by a double-bladed oar-like opening at the base but you could see that they were heart-shaped holes.
* (the red cord strings were a different type from Peony's too when comparisons are made)

There are such cats with similar representations as Sakura, holding onto large jingle bells with the same heart-shaped openings at the base.

In Peony's case, hers didn't come with such heart-shaped holes at the bottom of bell.

Sakura Blossoms
Not unlike in Peony's case, Sakura's head is adorned with flowers depicting Sakura flowers too.  The difference is that flowers made of dark pink fabric & white plastic stigmas which are rolled into a miniature bouquet using white paper tape.  It was completed with a little bow made of gold-coloured thread.

 Sakura does look gorgeous with the sakura blossoms atop her head.

As her name has suggested, she has many Sakura-themed embellishments which are shown clearly in this photograph.

However, I do not have any idea what that bunch of willow-like flowers are & what they represent.  They look nice on Sakura though!

I see similar auspicious intricacies at the back of Sakura & they are similar to those of Peony's.  However, the colouring on these symbols on Sakura are a lot more vibrant & saturated in terms of colour tone.

I loved how the yellow flower is protruding right above Sakura's fleshy short tail.  It reminded me of a bustled gown worn by ladies during the Victorian era.

Given that my flat isn't large enough to make way for too many fortune cats, I had been telling myself that Sakura would be the last cat I am getting for ourselves.

As the saying goes that two's a company, three's a crowd ... Or is three's a charm?

Anyways, I displayed both Peony & Koban side by side on top of the shoe cabinet.  Aren't they cute?  Kawaii!

Sakura is still kept away in the box that came with it when I bought from the seller.  My home is a very dusty place that's subject to "desert storms".  As such, I'm saving her for our new home which hopefully wouldn't be that dusty as our current home.

Perhaps I will remain a passive buyer of miniature fortune cats in the near future.  But let's keep it a secret from Hubby Dearest whose hot after my heels for adopting so many fortune cats within such a short span of time.  Shhhhh ... :D

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Disclaimer:

Kindly note that this blogging article is created strictly for the purpose of sharing my humble & objective views of products sold by the seller.

 

I am not affiliated to the seller mentioned in this blogging entry. 

 

Reader's discretion is therefore sought when viewing this thread and making any purchases from the seller.

 

Thank you for your kind understanding.

Maneki-neko 招き猫 (Part I) : Peony & Koban

My recent interest in fortune cats had been piqued by my dad who had been deeply fascinated by them himself for quite a number of years.

 

He had quite a vast collection of fortune cats which had been bought or given to him as gifts from his loved ones.  As his home had been roomy enough for a shelf to be dedicated for the purpose of displaying his cats, you could see from the photo shown below that he had a good variety of these fortune cats which range from figurines to coin banks.

 

 

Recently, my hubby & myself bought him a reasonably priced fortune cat from Young Generation located at NEX (Serangoon central) for his birthday. 

The birthday gift is to be added to his current collection as he had plenty of room on the shelf for fortune cats & other meaningful figurines such as his favourite fishes.

 

We placed in 18 one-dollar coins as a symbolic gesture which is best encapsulated in Chinese as "一直发" (Meaning getting lucky all the time).

The first fortune cat that I bought for myself dated back as far as 12 years ago when I first bought a really tiny figurine from a book store.  I bought it just for fun and it had since then been seated on my study table until I had forgotten all about its presence.

As you could see from the photograph attached below, my first fortune cat isn't exactly well-made & apart from wearing a collar bell around its neck, it is holding on to a "crystal" ball (likely to be a glass bead) in its right paw with its left paw held high up too.

Due to the age of this figurine, the dark red colour is bleeding out onto the pastel pink which had aged beautifully into a light peachy sort of tone.  The expression on this female fortune cat is one that is smiley & beckoning and I am still quite fond of this cat.

However, the red cushion in which it had been sitting on had been reduced to a flat piece of red cloth with unimpressive yellow threads serving as tassels.  If I could find the time & energy, I might just stuff cotton into the cushion to give it a boost in terms of height & puffiness.  Do you think she'll like it?  Yes I supposed so if it's well done! :P

Shortly after we presented the above miniature fortune cat to my dad for his birthday, I did a search on-line casually & browsed through local sources selling such cats.

Then, I came across a seller known as ilovesales.sg on qoo10 selling such cats.  Instead of purchasing online, I had decided to make a personal trip to their office at A'Posh Bizhub located in Yishun to see the fortune cats for myself.

For those of you who are interested in their fortune cats, kindly get in touch with them at the following qoo10 link as copied below:

http://list.qoo10.sg/item/JAPANESE-FORTUNE-CATS-NG/409567567

They have quite a nice variety of fortune cats, ranging from coin banks to decorative figurines.

After browsing through & much contemplation, I bought the following female cat from the seller as I felt an instant "connection" or affinity with this cat design:

Perhaps the floral motifs struck a cord in my vanity streak as my style of dressing had always been soft & feminine.  I love flowers such as lilies, roses, peonies and osmanthus which has been commonly used to worship deities in Buddhism.

Isn't she cute looking?  Kawaii!  (meaning cute in Japanese language)

I love the fact that she has a chubby & dressy outlook with a wide smile.

Let's call her Peony.

It took me quite a while to figure out where I should be placing her as we had the intention of purchasing a male version so that this female fortune cat wouldn't be lonely.

Initially, I had the idea that I should be placing on the shelf behind our headboard.  However, we had decided to place it on top of our IKEA shoe cabinet which resembled a TV console so that Peony would have a larger space for fanning in wealth & luck as compared to being confined in our bedroom.

Let's take a closer look at the intricacies & details which are found on Peony.

Bells :

Bells seemed to have a great significance in the Japanese culture.

 

Starting from the collar bell which is typically worn on home cats that belong to owners, the bell would start jingling when a real cat (wearing a bell) is approaching.  And it does make the fortune cat look more adorable when a collar bell is worn on.  It is also probably a way of suggesting that the cat had been adopted already.

 

However, I am not sure about the larger hand-held jingle bell although I guess that it's to invite an abundance of good luck & wealth while chasing away the bad energy?? 

 

If any of you bloggers out there know of the significance of hand-held bells for fortune cats, please share with me -  Thanks in advance!

 

Fan :

As for the folding fan (known as "ogi" in Japanese language) which is also hand-held on the right paw of the female fortune cat, it is probably to fan in all the good luck & wealth for her owners.

 

Sakura flowers :

Sakura blossoms (桜の花) are found on her body, hand-held fan and supposedly in the form of a bouquet of paper-made flowers perched at the top of her head.

 

 

In the Japanese culture, sakura flowers represents an omen of good fortune, an emblem of love & affection and a reminder of the transient nature of life & mortality as these flowers have a very short lifespan.  And this idea is closely aligned to the Buddhist beliefs on the impermanence of human life & nature.

By displaying such a fortune cat with sakura blossoms, it would have served as a valuable reminder to us that we are to contemplate death regularly as nobody is exempted from life's final journey) and in letting go of negative emotions so as to remain happy which is extremely important in one's lifetime; and to live our lives to the fullest ...  Afterall, isn't being happy the most important aspect of one's life in view of the impermanence of what we have now?

 

A close-up look at other interesting symbols found on Peony...

 

 

 

 

 

Other note-worthy details to take note of as I would be comparing Peony to another version which I acquired within the same week:

 

This version shows that the sakura blossoms are made of paper & decorated with glitter dust.  It looks interesting under lighting effects though the glitter dust had been falling off the paper flowers.  However, I figured out that I could easily get these miniature bunch of paper flowers replaced with artificial flowers.

 

 

 

The huge jingle bell for this version of fortune cats had been characterised by an opening shaped like a double-bladed oar at the bottom.

 

 

 

The second fortune cat which I bought from the same seller (ilovesales.sg) was a male cat which is carrying an ancient gold "koban" coin that says "10,000,000 ryo" as shown in the photograph below:

 

 

Since he is holding onto the ancient Japanese coin, let's call him Koban.

 

There are other symbolic items painted on the body of Koban, such as gourds (which means longevity as mentioned earlier in this write-up), hammer & a sakura flower drawn above its tail.  You could take a closer look at these intricacies on Koban by viewing the photographs shown below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Koban is definitely smaller in built and a lot lighter than his female counterpart (Peony).  Not unlike his companion, he too is holding on to a huge jingle bell but in his right paw instead of the left.

 

I just realised after browsing through websites that Koban is a calico cat, which is supposedly, the luckiest of all cats as he has the best of what cats represent in the Japanese culture of fortune cats.

 

For now, Peony & Koban are seated side by side on top of my shoe console.  Don't they both look cute?

 

 

 

If this blogging article interests you, please stay tuned to part 2 of it where I would introduce another relatively up-market version of the fortune cat ... named as Sakura.

 

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Disclaimer:

Kindly note that this blogging article is created strictly for the purpose of sharing my humble & objective views of products sold by the aforesaid company.

 

I am not affiliated to ilovesg.com mentioned in this blogging entry. 

 

Reader's discretion is therefore sought when viewing this thread and making any purchases with the seller.

 

Thank you for your kind understanding.