Gotokuji Temple

The temple said to be the birthplace of the maneki-neko, the beckoning cat. Ii Naotaka — the second-generation lord who won Tokugawa Ieyasu's favor and secured the Hikone domain's foundations — was once passing a rundown temple when a cat inexplicably beckoned him from the gate. Curious, he stepped inside, and thunder suddenly crashed. Having escaped the storm thanks to the cat, Naotaka stayed to hear the head priest's sermon, and that connection made the temple the Ii family's ancestral temple, bringing it prosperity. The Ii family cemetery holds the grave of Ii Naosuke, the chief minister who worked to open Japan to the world, and beside the Buddha hall, the Shofukuden is lined with beckoning cats of every size left as offerings.