It’s said that Shimazu Yoshihiro, the 17th head of the Shimazu family, took seven cats with him when he departed for the military campaigns of the Bunroku and Keichō eras. At the Cat Shrine in Sengan-en, the two cats that safely returned are enshrined.

One story suggests that Yoshihiro brought the cats in order to tell time by observing the dilation of their pupils, using them as a kind of natural clock.

Originally, the Cat Shrine stood at a ritual site on the northern edge of Kagoshima Castle. After the Meiji Restoration, when the Shimazu family left the castle, the shrine was relocated to Sengan-en. In 2024, it was moved to its current location, and playful “guide cats” were placed along the approach, along with a “petting cat” statue within the shrine grounds.

Of the cats Yoshihiro took with him, a brown tabby was named Yasu. Because of this, cats with similar markings are still called “Yasu cats” in Kagoshima today. The name is said to derive from Hisayasu, Yoshihiro’s second son.