Standing guard in front of the gate to Shozen-in, a small temple in the mountains of Kumamoto, are a pair of cats rather than the more usual nio or komainu. The reason relates to the story of why the temple was founded in 1625
Subsequently the lord decided to construct a new temple to pacify the spirit of the son who had been killed. Pacifying angry spirits and ghosts is a huge part of Japanese religious practise. The disasters ceased.
Earlier I have posted about the Kannon-do of the temple, and of a Cat Shrine in Kagoshima