A Thursday Tale

 

#1 here. A couple of days, I finished a translation job for a client in Japan. The story was so nice that I thought you might like to hear it too. It is the tale of Bitchū Matsuyama Castle, located in Okayama Prefecture, in western Japan. It was built in the 17th century by a feudal clan. In order to make it impregnable, it was built on a mountain (a small one!). Because of its particular topography, between autumn an spring, the fog rises up from the valley and envelops the mountain, making the castle look as though it is floating on the clouds. It is therefore known as "The Castle in the Sky."

In the late 19th century, a law was passed abolishing feudal clans and outlawing castles. But this castle was in such a hard-to-get-to place that it was simply abandoned, rather than destroyed. Sixty years later, it was "rediscovered" by a local history teacher who made it his life's work to restore it. Nowadays, it looks like this:

It was even featured in a popular daytime drama called "Sanada Maru" a few years ago. In 2018, however, the region was battered by terrible storms, and the number of visitors dropped dramatically. The day was saved by..... you guessed it! A CAT! Here is the story as I translated it for the article:

"Help in these hard times arrived in the shape of a ginger and white stray cat. He started out by scrounging for his share of the custodian's lunch box, and decided to make the castle his home after the terrible rainstorms. In December, the Takahashi City Tourist Office designated him "Lord of the Castle." He was first discovered in the vicinity of the third enclosure (San no Maru), and in honor of Tani Sanjūrō, the famed head of the seventh unit of the Shinsengumi Shogunate police, who was from the Matsuyama clan in Bitchū, he was called Sanjūrō, Cat Lord of the Castle. Far from disliking it when visitors pet him, he purrs loudly and is totally unfazed by film crews and paparazzi, nonchalantly walking around the castle like a true lord.Thanks to Sanjūrō popularity with cat lovers, the number of visitors is greater than before the storm damage."

Here is the gorgeous ginger boy, Sanjūrō, Cat Lord of the Castle!

Here he is with adoring fans:

I hope you enjoyed the wonderful tale of Sanjūrō!