Hiro Arikawa came to international attention when The Travelling Cat Chronicles became a bestseller in many languages, not least English. The story of a man named Satoru and his cat Nana who go on an extensive journey to visit Satoru’s friends won over readers in Japan and around the world, especially those who appreciate the special bond between humans and cats. Both characters return in a couple of stories in Arikawa’s new collection, The Goodbye Cat, translated by Philip Gabriel. Arikawa’s writing is light and good-humored even when it deals with serious subjects like parenthood and death.
All the stories show how cats figure prominently in the lives of their owners; Nana only features in the final one, “Life Is Not Always Kind”, similar in this way to others in the book. In the first and titular story, “The Goodbye Cat”, the Sakuraba family takes in a second cat soon after the parents have their second child, a son named Hiromi. As the story opens, this second cat, named Kota, is placing his paw into a little dish of soy sauce. He then places his paw on the tablecloth, leaving a print more than a few times. Kota, it turns out, is determined to become a nekomata, or a supernatural spirit that would never leave his humans. He and the family’s first and older cat, Diana, speak of this as Diana gets up in age. But how to become immortal, Kota wonders?
There had to be some procedure, was Diana’s opinion. Whenever there was a change in a human’s life, they had to go through procedures at the city hall, she said. Like when someone was born, or they died, or got married.
These procedures at city hall usually require a name stamp to sign official papers. Kota and Diana need to perfect their “stamp” before they can find the required documents to become a nekomata. Sadly, that would never happen for Diana as she passes away before she can figure out how to make a stamp. But Kota still has a long life ahead and during that time he tries to perfect his seal. Hiromi and his older brother Masahiro grow older and leave home, while Kota remains a constant companion to the Sakuraba parents and will later go on to bring the family together.
This story sets the tone for the others. In “Bringing Up Baby”, a new father named Keisuke feels unprepared to take care of his baby daughter Shiori. He has never taken much responsibility in his work as a once-successful manga writer and even in his marriage. While his wife Kaori spends a month with their baby Shiori at her parents’ home, Keisuke ends up bringing home a kitten unbeknownst to Kaori. In the end, the cat, named Spin, inspires Keisuke to become a hands-on father. Spin also lends a calmness to the household.
‘Spin-chan, you’ve been our lucky-cat charm, haven’t you now, you liddle cutey…’ Keisuke said, in an embarrassing baby voice, giving firm strokes along her back, until he ended up with a claw-in cat-punch to the side of his head.
Another story, “Cat Island”, takes place on a small island in Okinawa known for its large cat population. Ryo is a young boy who cannot get used to the idea that he has a stepmother after the death of his mother. So to bring the family together, Ryo’s father and his stepmother Haruko bring Ryo to Cat Island. Ryo’s father is a professional photographer and is assigned to take photos on the island for a magazine’s special cat issue. The island is also the place where his father and Haruko met when his father was still mourning the death of his first wife.
Arikawa weaves Okinawan folklore into this story, which is the one story in the collection that highlights the location as much as it highlights the cats. An old woman who knew Ryo’s father and Haruka back when they met on the island tells Ryo about the concept of mapui, or one’s soul.
The idea that the soul could fall away was a concept unique to Okinawa, where they believed it could be triggered by a great shock or surprise. In that event, you had to pick up the fallen soul and return it to the body. If you didn’t, you’d become depressed, your body would start to ache and, in the worst case, you could become seriously ill.
The last two stories center around the stars of The Travelling Cat Chronicles, Satoru and his cat Nana. Readers who are not familiar with Arikawa’s first cat book or haven’t gotten around to reading it yet will still understand and appreciate this new collection.