The much-loved white, orange and black Calico cat who became a local tourist attraction at a Tokyo railway station has died. Tama was 16 and her passing has so moved the local friends, fans and owners of the Wakayama Electric Railway Co. that the gentle creature has been elevated to the status of a goddess in a Shinto funeral ceremony. Tama’s lore includes her discovery in the train station in 2007 and a decision to dress her in a custom-made stationmaster’s hat as a welcoming presence. It worked beyond the wildest expectation of the railway which attributes a sum of nearly $10 million Canadian to Tama in fares, pictures and souvenirs. Tama died of heart failure on June 22. The Shinto religion, indigenous to Japan and practised by many Japanese, has a variety of gods including animals. Wakayama President Mitsunobu Kojima thanked the cat for her achievement, and said Tama will be enshrined at a nearby cat shrine next month.
