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Maneki-neko Museum

Published: Aug 11, 2026

Updated: Aug 11, 2026

maneki-nekobeckoning catfolk artOkayama Cityfarmhouse museum

Representative image — not a photograph of this location.

This was the first museum in Japan devoted to the beckoning cat, and it is a hundred-year-old farmhouse in the hills north of Okayama City holding around 800 of them. They come from every region and period — Edo clay figures, Meiji porcelain, wartime papier-mache, plastic novelties, regional variants where the raised paw and the colour mean different things — and they are displayed in rooms with tatami and beams rather than in cases.

The effect of 800 cats looking at you in a dim farmhouse is not what the subject matter suggests. A separate building on the site runs painting sessions where you decorate a blank plaster cat, and the museum keeps its own live cats, which wander through and are treated by everyone as part of the collection.

Essential Information

Opening Hours

10:00 AM – 5:00 PM (last entry 4:30 PM)

Closed: Open year-round

Entrance Fee

¥600 general | ¥300 elementary and junior high school | Painting session ¥1,700 at the annexe

Best Season

Year-round

Visit Duration

1 hour; 2 hours with a painting session

Getting There

Access Information

Kanayamaji 865-1, Kita Ward, Okayama City. About 30 minutes by car from Okayama Station; limited bus service. Open 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM with last entry at 4:30 PM, open year-round. Admission ¥600 general, ¥300 elementary and junior high school. Painting sessions at the separate Lucky Cat House annexe cost ¥1,700.

Insider Guide

Premium

**Eight hundred cats in a farmhouse.** The building is a century-old house rather than a gallery, and the density in a low-ceilinged tatami room is the experience. **The raised paw means different things.** Right paw for money, left for customers, both for greed depending on who you ask. The regional variations in colour and posture are explained in the displays and are the actual content. **Painting a cat takes about an hour.** Blank plaster figure, paints, and you take it home. Booking is sensible at weekends. **There are real cats.** They live on site and go where they like. **It is 30 minutes out of town with poor bus service.** Effectively a car trip. The Kanayamaji temple on the same hillside is worth combining if you have driven out.

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