Onomichi Cat Alley

photo by wongwt · CC BY-SA 2.0

photo by そらみみ · CC BY-SA 4.0

108 stone cats since 1998: a year each, through desalting, painting, blessing.

Since 1998 the Onomichi artist Sonoyama Shunji has been placing sea-smoothed stones painted as cats, the ‘fukuishineko’ (福石猫), along the roughly 200 metres that separate Ushitora Shrine from the three-storey pagoda of Tennei-ji: 108 of them can be counted along the alley, while others (more than a thousand in all) are scattered around the city in the ‘Onomichi Ihatov’ project, inspired by Kenji Miyazawa's imaginary utopia. Each stone takes about a year of work: it is collected on the beach, desalted for about six months, painted in several coats, and finally blessed at Ushitora Shrine before taking its place in the alley.

A pedestrian alley in the neighbourhood at the foot of Mount Senkōji, livened up by painted stone cats and small shops.

ℹ️ Always accessible and free. You reach it on foot from Ushitora Shrine (near the lower station of the Senkōji Ropeway) or by walking down the ‘path of literature’ that starts from the park at the top.

🚉 Onomichi · 14 min walk

Sources: ihatov.in · jalan.net · city.onomichi.hiroshima.jp

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