Obituary for a Cat in Japan: Economist

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The cat’s Miaow; Tama, stationmaster of Kishi station and vice-president of the Wakayama Electric Railway, died on June 22nd, aged 16. Economist, July 2, 2015
http://www.economist.com/news/ob ... ectric-railway-died

Note:
(a) Regarding the title “The cat’s Miaow.”  
(i) miaow: "British variant of MEOW"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/miaow
(ii) For “cat’s meow,” see bee's knees (n)
www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=bee%27s%20knees

(b) "Her immediate situation—whelped by a stray in the workers’ waiting room at Kishi station, on a rural railway line in western Japan—did not augur brightly. But as soon as her eyes opened, she saw what she was. Rolling languorously on her back, she admired her white underside; delicately twisting her neck to wash, she noted the black and brown bars on her back. She was a tortoiseshell, or a calico cat to Americans."
(i) It is female, whose name is "tama" (hiragana: たま, corresponding to kanji 玉).
(ii) whelp
(n): "any of the young of various carnivorous mammals and especially of the dog"
(vt): "to give birth to —used of various carnivores and especially the dog"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whelp
(iii) Kishi Station (Wakayama)  貴志駅
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kishi_Station_(Wakayama)
(和歌山県 紀の川市 [the city is 13.8 -- air distance -- miles south of Osaka])
(A) The "ki" and "shi" are Chinese pronunciations of kanji 貴 and 志, respectively.
(B) The station is on 和歌山電鉄 貴志川線. 和歌山電鉄 is a railway company based in 和歌山県和歌山市. 貴志川線 runs from 和歌山県和歌山市の和歌山駅 to 和歌山県紀の川市の貴志駅.
(iv) tortoiseshell cat
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tortoiseshell_cat

Quote:

"The colors are often described as red and black, but 'red' can instead be orange, yellow, or cream and 'black' can instead be chocolate, grey, tabby, or blue. A tortoiseshell cat with the tabby pattern as one of its colors is a Torbie.

" 'Tortoiseshell' is typically reserved for cats with relatively small or no white markings. Those that are largely white with tortoiseshell patches are described as tricolor [三毛 (猫) in Japanese], tortoiseshell-and-white (in the United Kingdom), or calico (in Canada and the United States).


(c) "Most ubiquitous of all, the Maneki-neko 招き猫, or beckoning cat (almost always a tortoiseshell), waved outside shops, restaurants and gambling parlours to draw customers in. These plastic cats stared rudely at one and all, where she appraised people with a green-eyed and sleepy gaze; their paws sawed up and down, where she made a virtue of curled immobility. In betting places they held up big gold coins to show they could bring good fortune."
(i) Japanese English dictionary
* maneki 招き 【まねき】 (n): "invitation"
* eki-chō 駅長 【えきちょう】 (n): "station master"  (“eki” is the Chinese pronunciation of 駅)
(ii) saw (vi): "to make motions as though using a saw"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/saw

(d) "She [Tama the cat] was trained young by her mother, Miiko ミーコ, outside the grocer’s shop by Kishi station. They would laze there in the sun to bewitch passers-by into suddenly needing a bag of rice or a bottle of mirin, and in exchange the grocer, Toshiko KOYAMA 小山 利子 [who runs 小山商店], gave them food."
(i) Miiko (where the double i’s means a long vowel of “i”) is the name of a virtual pet (actually a virtual cat) in Digimon Adventure. See Digimon
ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digimon
(ii) mirin  味醂
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirin

(e) "The little halt sat on a line, nine miles long and with 12 somnolent stops, between Wakayama City and Kishigawa.  By 2006 it was losing 500m yen ($4m) a year. It should have been closed, but the customers said no; so it was sold to the Wakayama Electric Railway, which laid off the last man at Kishi to try to save some money. Mr Koyama became informal station-keeper, and the next year Tama was appointed stationmaster 駅長.
(i) halt (n): "STOP"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/halt
(ii) 小山 利子 is a 48-year-old woman. So “Mr Koyama” is either a typo (should be “Ms”) or her husband.

(f) “In 2009 a special bewhiskered cat-train, the Tama-densha たま電車, began to run on the line, covered with cartoons of her and with her image all over the seats. The next year the station was rebuilt in the shape of her head, with dormer windows for her eyes [see )b)(iii)], and a café opened up with her portrait iced on cupcakes.  * * * Tama the Divine [たまは神になる becoming god]”

たま電車. 和歌山電鐵株式会社, undated
www.wakayama-dentetsu.co.jp/train/tamaden.html