Cat in Japanese is 猫, said neko. That one word covers everything English does: the animal, your pet, the stray on the wall. Eleven strokes, built from the animal radical 犭 on the left and 苗 on the right. Written in hiragana it is ねこ, and in katakana ネコ.
Cat in Japanese
Cat in Japanese is 猫, and the spoken word is neko. It is one of the rare kanji where the everyday word and the single character line up exactly, so 猫 and neko are interchangeable. The on’yomi ビョウ (byou) exists but is rare, surfacing mostly in bookish compounds such as 愛猫 (aibyou, a beloved cat).
If you say the word out loud in Japan, you say neko. Nobody walks past a cat and says byou.
The Kanji for Cat: 猫
- Character: 猫
- On’yomi: ビョウ (byou)
- Kun’yomi: ねこ (neko)
- Stroke count: 11
- General meaning: cat
- Radical: 犬 (dog), Kangxi radical 94, which appears in this compressed left-hand form as 犭 and marks four-legged animals generally rather than dogs specifically
You meet that same radical in 狐 (kitsune, fox), 狼 (ookami, wolf), and 猿 (saru, monkey). It is the language’s shorthand for beast.
Japanese Symbol for Cat
猫 is a phono-semantic compound, which is the most common way kanji are built. The left half tells you what kind of thing it is. The right half tells you how it sounds.
The left element 犭 is the animal radical, three strokes that once drew a dog in profile: raised head, bent body, leg. It has flattened into a tall narrow shape, but the crouch is still there.
The right element is 苗 (byou, seedling), doing sound work rather than meaning work. It is built from 艹, the grass crown, over 田, a field: young shoots in a plot of ground. No cat has ever had anything to do with seedlings. 苗 is there because it supplied the pronunciation. So the honest reading of 猫 is a four-legged animal pronounced byou, and the picture stops there.
How to Write 猫 in Japanese
Eleven strokes, left side first, then the right, which is the standard order for any left-right kanji.
The radical 犭 takes three strokes. A short stroke slanting down to the left at the top, then a longer curved stroke that drops and hooks, then a sweeping diagonal that cuts across from upper left to lower right. Then the right side, 苗, in eight strokes: the grass crown 艹 first, three strokes, a short vertical, a long horizontal, then a second short vertical. Below it 田 in five, its outer frame before the cross inside, and the closing bottom line last.
Give the interior of 田 room. Eleven strokes in one square is dense, and the four small compartments inside the field element are the first thing to collapse if the character is written small or tattooed small.
How to Say Cat in Japanese
Neko is two even beats: “neh-koh.” The e is short as in “bed,” the o is short as in “or,” and neither syllable takes an English-style stress. Say them flat and equal. The plural is the same word; Japanese does not mark it.
Real sentences:
- 猫が好きです。(Neko ga suki desu.) I like cats.
- うちの猫は白いです。(Uchi no neko wa shiroi desu.) Our cat is white.
- 猫が三匹います。(Neko ga sanbiki imasu.) There are three cats.
- 猫が窓の外を見ている。(Neko ga mado no soto o mite iru.) The cat is looking out the window.
- 私は猫舌です。(Watashi wa nekojita desu.) I cannot handle hot food or drink.
That last one is worth memorizing. 猫舌 is used constantly and it gets a laugh, because you are literally saying you have a cat’s tongue.
Words and Compounds With 猫
- 子猫 (koneko): a kitten, literally child cat.
- 黒猫 (kuroneko): a black cat. Unlike much of Europe, black cats in Japan are traditionally read as lucky, particularly for warding off illness.
- 三毛猫 (mikeneko): a calico, literally three-fur cat.
- 野良猫 (noraneko): a stray.
- 招き猫 (manekineko): the beckoning cat, the raised-paw figurine by the shop register.
- 猫舌 (nekojita): cat tongue, a person who cannot eat or drink anything hot.
- 猫背 (nekoze): a hunched or rounded back. Neutral to mildly critical, and worth knowing because it shows the character in a less flattering light.
- 猫の額 (neko no hitai): a cat’s forehead, meaning a comically tiny patch of land. Estate agents dread it.
There is also the verb phrase 猫を被る (neko o kaburu), literally to put a cat on your head, meaning to feign innocence or play the demure type in front of people you want to impress.
Cat in Japanese Culture
The 招き猫 is the anchor. Gotokuji, a Sōtō Zen temple in Setagaya in Tokyo, tells the story: the lord Ii Naotaka, out with his falcons, was beckoned in from an approaching storm by the head priest’s cat and so escaped a lightning strike. He made the temple his clan’s, and its grounds now hold thousands of white beckoning cats left as offerings, shelf upon shelf of them.
Cats also have a darker register in folklore. A cat that lives long enough is said to grow a second tail and become a nekomata, and the shape-shifting bakeneko turns up all over Edo-period ghost stories and woodblock prints. The affection and the unease sit side by side.
Modern Japan keeps up the devotion. February 22 is 猫の日 (neko no hi), Cat Day, established in 1987 and dated for the way 2-2-2 reads as nyan nyan nyan. And the novel that made Natsume Sōseki famous, serialized from January 1905, is narrated by a housecat: 吾輩は猫である, I Am a Cat.
As a Tattoo
猫 works well as a tattoo because the meaning is unambiguous and the shape is genuinely attractive. Eleven strokes give the character density and texture, and the split between the narrow radical and the wider right-hand element creates a natural rhythm that brush styles flatter.
Understand what you are getting, though: 猫 is the plain noun. It says “cat,” the way a label says “cat.” It does not say “independent spirit” or “nine lives” or anything else the internet has attached to it. If you want a cat tattoo that says something, the imagery carries more than the character does, and 招き猫 brings real cultural weight.
Check pairings before you commit. 猫背 (nekoze) means a stooped posture and 猫の額 (neko no hitai) means a tiny scrap of ground. Neither is offensive, but neither is what anyone intends by putting a cat on their arm. Kanji set side by side form real dictionary words, not a sum of ideas.
On script: Japanese and simplified Chinese both write this character as 猫. Traditional Chinese uses 貓, with the 豸 radical instead. If you are after correct Japanese, 猫 is the form you want, and a reference image showing 貓 is a sign the source is not Japanese.
Placement is forgiving, but size is not. The fine lines inside 苗 blur together as ink settles over the years, so skip very small work on fingers. The forearm, shoulder blade, and calf all give it room.
Confirm with a native speaker before you ink. You can preview the character in vertical and horizontal layouts with the Japanese Tattoo Generator, and read the wider background in our guide to japanese tattoo meanings.
Related Kanji
FAQ
How do you say cat in Japanese?
You say neko, written 猫. Two flat beats, “neh-koh,” with no stress on either syllable and no plural form. It works for a pet, a stray, or the species in general. The on’yomi byou exists but stays in written compounds like 愛猫 (aibyou, beloved cat).
What is the kanji for cat?
The kanji for cat is 猫, eleven strokes. It combines 犭, the compressed animal radical derived from 犬 (dog), with 苗, which supplies the pronunciation rather than the meaning. Its readings are ねこ (neko) and ビョウ (byou), and neko is what people actually say.
What is the Japanese symbol for cat?
猫 is the written symbol. Read literally it means a four-legged creature pronounced byou, with no picture of a cat inside it at all. The symbolic weight in Japan sits elsewhere: in 招き猫 (manekineko), the beckoning figurine that invites customers and luck through a shop door.
How do you write neko in Japanese?
Three ways, all correct in different contexts. 猫 is the kanji and the standard written form. ねこ is hiragana, softer and often used in casual or cute writing. ネコ is katakana, common in scientific writing about the species and in branding. Our guide to hiragana vs katakana explains when each fits.
Is 猫 the same character in Chinese?
Simplified Chinese uses 猫, the same shape as Japanese. Traditional Chinese uses 貓, which swaps the animal radical 犭 for 豸. If your reference image shows 貓, it is not the Japanese form. The pronunciation differs in every case: neko in Japanese, māo in Mandarin.
Does the cat kanji carry any special meaning in Japan?
Not on its own. 猫 is a plain noun. The cultural meaning lives in specific compounds and figures instead, above all 招き猫 (manekineko), the beckoning cat that invites luck and customers, and in the folklore around the two-tailed nekomata and the shape-shifting bakeneko.