PUBLICATION MAGAZINE VOLUME ONE magz onl | Page 21

19 KNOW YOUR CAT BREEDS
JAPANESE BOBTAIL
ANCIENT - JAPAN - RARE
T HE JAPANESE BOBTAIL is hugely
charismatic breed witj an appearance that is
quite unique and unlike other tailless breeds. The
Japenese Bobtail (JBT) has no realtion to the
Manx. The JBT derives its short, pom-pom-like
tail through a recessive gene; every JBT’s tail is
unique in conformation to the partical cat. The
Manx,on the other hand,derives the structure of
its tail through a dominant gene. When two JBTs
are bred they will a lways produce their distinctive
tail configuration. The JBT tail has a classically
Oriental face with its beautiful eyes set on a slant
and upright, intelligent ears. These are slender,
athletic cats that delight in interactive play
including fetch, and sometimes even in water. They
also have a characteristic chirping voice ofthen
described as “signing”. A JBT will become heavily
involved in its owner’s life, an integral part of
every activity.
The JBT is a truly ancient breed and one whose
origins are subject to a number of colourful (and
wholly unture) legends. One recounts that a cat lay
sleeping by the fireside long ago when a spark leapt
from the embers and set its tail alight. The terrified
cat jumped up and ran through the Imperial City in
Japan, setting fire to all the buildings as it went, By
the next day the entire city had been burned to the
ground and the furious emperor announced that all
cats must have their tails cut off to prevent such a
thing happening again this gave rise to the Japenese
Bobtail. Cats are thought to have been introduced
to the Japan by the sixth century C.E from China
and Korea, and appear frequently in ancient
Japenese works of art. Many depict cats with a
bobtail and there are also a numbers of images that
clearly show longhaired Bobtail cats, indicating
that the loghaired variety has been around just as
long as the shorthaired. From early on cats were
considered lucky and a sign of prosperity in both
China and Japan, possibly because of their rodent-
killing ways.
The Japanese Bobtail is most aligned with the
famous symbol of welcome and good fortune, the
female short-tailed Maneki-Neko, a beckoning
cat figurre. Over the time it has become a hugely
reproduced and recognized figure internationally
and is first thought to have been introduced during
the Edo Period (1603-1868). Works of art from
the seventeenth century frequently depict Bobtail
cat that are tricoloured, being mostly white with
pacthes of red and black. This popural colouration
is called mi-ke Despite these rather grand
associations, the JBT was historically a working
cat,found throughout Japan. It is consequently
extremely hardy and disease resistant.
It was not until the late 1960s under the impetus
of Elizabeth Freret that the JBT began to be
established in the United States. Freret, who was
also an Abyssinian breeder, imported three JBTs
in 1968. She was helped through the process by
the breeder Judy Crawford, an American living
in Japan at the time. These three cats had been
chosen from thirty-six kittens in Japan as the
best of their kind, and were the foundation for
the breed ion the United States. At the same time
Crawferd helped Lynn Beck, a judge with the Cat
Fancier’s Association (CFA), to import several
more JBTs, and together Beck and Freret wrote the
first JBT standard. They were also driving force in
gaining recognation for the breed in America cat
fancy circles. Most of the major cat associations
recognize the JBT today and more recently, the
longhaired JBT has also been acknowledged; the
British Govering Council of the cat fancy (GCCF)
does not recognize breed. It remains low in
numbers