Why buy your cat a cat house when you can buy a cat shrine from Japan instead?

The Neko Jinja House lets you worship your cat in the comfort of your own home.

If they could talk, cats would tell us, vehemently and frequently, that they occupy a higher plane of divinity than we mere humans. “No, no, you’re not our owners,” they’d patiently explain. “We merely allow you to act as our servants as we deign to bless your home with our presence.”

So, naturally, showing the proper piety means providing your feline housemate with a shrine, and Japan’s Howay Industry has just the thing.

Howay produces cardboard products, and while most of their creations are some sort of box, their latest endeavor is a compact Shinto shrine-style cat house. Nods to the traditional architecture include visual recreations of roof tiles, sliding doors, the bell and cord used when offering prayers, a collection box, and even the zigzagging paper wards called shide.

There’s actually no floor to the structure, which means you can either put a pillow in there to make it a place for you cat to play and sleep or slip the entire thing over your pet’s litterbox.

Even though it’s made of cardboard, the shrine is stable and sturdy, with the roof able to support multiple climbing kitties.

Howay’s Cat Shrine House (or Neko Jinja House, as it’s called in Japanese) is being offered as part of a crowdfunding project on website Kibidango, but it’s cleared its goal well ahead of the deadline, so the shrines are basically straight purchases right now. Reward tiers including a shrine start at 4,840 yen (US$46), and the campaign’s page can be found here, with orders open until November 30.

Oh, and if you’ve already bought your cat a cat house and are wondering what to do with the old one should you buy a Cat House Shrine, here’s an idea.

Source: Kibidango/豊栄産業株式会社 via Japaaan
Images: Kibidango/豊栄産業株式会社
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