How are cats seen in Japan?

I was was just wondering how the Japanese people see cats.
What I mean by ''see'' is how they percieve them culturaly and historicaly.
I have always been curious about this.
There iis no real importance behind this question however, it is just built up curiosity.

Cats were originally imported from China together with Buddhism (as an animal to protect Buddhism scripture from mice) and often appeared in poems and novels in the Heian period (8-12 century) as a pet of aristocrats. As such, cats have long been considered a good animal and you can see "Maneki-neko", a luck-inviting cat doll at many shops/restaurants even now.

As with in any other countries, however, there are people who don't like cats.

They say that cats came from china with Buddhism to protect scripture from rats or mouse. Then farmers had begun keep cats for similar reason (protect rice and other grain). Monks and farmers loved cats. But some people not. They say that dogs are faithful, cats are ingratiating animals. In medieval times they believed that cats transform to human, especially long tailed cats do. Therefore people wanted to keep short tailed. This selection may form “Japanese bob tail”.
But don’t misunderstand us, please. Generally, most of Japanese people had been loving cats, we loved their elegance and adorable.
Sorry for my bad English. If you want, I will introduce some folk tales about cats, in any chance. But famous story “Maneki Neko” was written frequently in good English.

. . . wondered why many of the stray cats in Japan have stub tails.

They're called Japanese Bobtail cats...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Bobtail

In EDO-period, people has the image called ''NEKO-MATA'', spread-tailed cat monster.

''NEKO-MATA'' is ''transformed cat'' which lived very long time (enough to understand what people say and think).
They were very afraid of that monster.

NEKO-MATA has a spread tail. So japanese people was afraid of long-tail cat.
Long tail may spread and become NEKO-MATA, they thought.

Hense, people who lived in EDO-period liked rather bob-tailed cat than long tailed cat.

There is very famous story about NEKO-MATA called ''NABESIMA no BAKE-NEKO'' (BAKE-NEKO means NEKO-MATA)

I am very sorry about my terrible English.

People who lived in EDO-period liked short tail cat.
But it does not mean "they cut long tail".
They just choiced short tail cat than long tail cat, I think.

One of japanese socio-zoologist studied "Distribution ratio of short tail cat and long tail cat in Japan".
There is regional difference.

I've read that cats are disliked by Buddhists because traditionally cats were one of only two kinds of animals that didn't cry upon Buddha's death.
On the other hand, ukiyo-e prints by Kuniyoshi often feature cats because he loved them.
The animals most reviled in Japan (again, traditionally) were foxes. They were believed to be able to take human form and enchant humans. One reason it's considered impolite to sit on the edges of tatami is that there was an old belief that people who did that were actually foxes in human form and were hiding their tails between the mats!
Again, on the other hand at Inari shrines, foxes are considered messengers of the gods.

Speaking of Buddism and cats, Komyoji, a temple in Kamakura City is so-called "Neko-dera (cats temple)" since it is always filled with stray cats.

I recall reading somewhere that the temple doesn't really appreciate this, because they can't take care of these animals (not because of the relationship with Budda if any). But if memory serves me right, the visitors, attracted by the cats, organized a group to take care of them.

Komyoji serves a great lunch course of shojin-ryori (with sake!). I once dined there with a friend on my birthday, and I enjoyed watching the cats dozing under the sun near the visitors enjoying sketches and things. This is the temple's website if anyone is interested.
http://park16.wakwak.com/~komyo-ji/html/accese.html

I always had the impression that cats were very much linked with the Japanese everyday life, at least for some centuries. Of course, a lot of people have them as pets, but more typically, housewives would just befriend local stray cats and name them according to the design of their fur such as Shiro (white), Kuro (black), Mike (mixture of black, white and brown), Buchi (a more complex mixture) etc. This was the case with my grandmother.

However, in the recent decades, people started thinking that spoiling stray cats only allows them to have more baby stray cats, and some may love them while others don't. So nowadays, feeding stray cats is not really considered a good thing to do. If you're going to feed them, you should take them in, give them contraceptive operation and look after them forever, which is probably the case with the group in the temple of Komyoji.

I always thought it was interesting that black cats are considered bad luck in European/American countries while they are good luck in Japan. But through a quick double-check, I found out that originally black cats were good luck in Scotland, and nowadays black cats are bad luck even in Japan probably influenced by the European beliefs. Either way, I think black fur is beautiful.

I consider that we Japanese don’t mind heavily black cats are bad luck.
Yamato-unyu (Transportation Company) has adopted black cats (mother & child) image as their trade mark. A large number of trucks are running about with their painted trade mark Kuroneko. The company is called Kuroneko-Yamato(Yamato the black cat).
Last year, NHK often broadcasted the song “Kuroクロ” in Minna-no-uta program (lyrics are about black cat and girl. I always cried when listened. I heard many people cried too).

I stayed in the Prince hotel when I was in Hiroshima. It's on the shoreline of a little peninsula, and there is a nice green bit of jungle next to it, and a walkway around the shoreline. A good quiet spot where Hiroshiman's go fishing and do quiet exercise.

Anyway, we walked around it and saw lots and lots of cats. Then a lady of a bicycle rode by. She'd stop, open up a small can of catfood, drop it down and pick up an old one. Cats would run in to eat. Then she'd ride a bit further, and another can exchange... more cats. A strange little ritual to observe.

She became known to us as the Catlady of Hiroshima.

Yes, while I was researching the black cat thing, the Yamato Unyu logo often appeared as an example. But Felix the Cat of America or Australia was black too, so you never know :)

I was told by my family that they see white cats as rather stupid (but beautiful), and black cats as very intelligent. Maybe it's just coincidental that all Japanese people have black hair too! I think it is some kind of subconcsious comparison to the Japanese & westerners :) they do say it in a lighthearted way tho, my aunty always spoils the locals stray cats rotten!