'I am convinced it is superior to all other cats': Diary of 22-year-old Japanese emperor reveals his thoughts about his personal black cat, proving that cat owners haven't changed since 889 A.D.

Blake Seidel • Managing Editor & Brand Manager

Aug 27, 2026 6:15 AM EDT

A lot of things may have changed since the 9th century, but one thing that hasn't is that cat people still think their cat is the best cat in the whole wide world.

History has never been my strongest subject. I just find it… boring. But maybe that's because I never learned about the parts of history that were actually interesting to me - until now. Did you know that there are many existing documents of famous people writing about their pet cats? From all different time periods and parts of the world, pawrents throughout history have written their private thoughts about their cats, but one thing connects them all: they all think their cats are the best cats, that they're the most beautiful things in the world, and they're purrfect pets. It's good to know that some things never change.

You might not have known this before, but Mark Twain was a cat guy. He stated that he couldn't tolerate being catless while traveling, causing him to "rent" kittens during his summer trips. Twain also famously once lost his cat, made posters offering a $5 reward (a lot of money back then), and when his cat was found, he paraded him around, imagining his many adventures. Now that sounds like our kind of guy.

Nikolai Tesla once wrote about his childhood cat, Mačak, calling him "the finest of all cats in the world" (sound familiar?). Legend has it that Mačak is also responsible for his life's work on experimenting with electricity. On a cold winter day, Mačak generated some static electricity because of the dryness of the air, sparking (see what we did there?) his curiosity and becoming one of his earliest memories of electricity.

And now to the story of the hour, posted originally by _voma, documenting the diary of a 22-year-old Japanese emperor and his musings about his black cat, who was gifted to him in 889 A.D. The words he uses to describe his beautiful black cat may be different from the ones we use, but the feeling is the same: his cat is meowgnificent, purrfection incarnate, and more entertaining than anything else in the world.

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"On the 6th Day of the 2nd Month of the First Year of the Kampo era. Taking a moment of my free time, I wish to express my joy of the cat. It arrived by boat as a gift to the late Emperor, received from the hands of Minamoto no Kuwashi.

The color of the fur is peerless. None could find the words to describe it, although one said it was reminiscent of the deepest ink. It has an air about it, similar to Kanno. Its length is 5 sun, and its height is 6 sun. I affixed a bow about its neck, but it did not remain for long.

In rebellion, it narrows its eyes and extends its needles. It shows its back. When it lies down, it curls in a circle like a coin. You cannot see its feet. It's as if it were circular Bi disk. When it stands, its cry expresses profound loneliness, like a black dragon floating above the clouds.

By nature, it likes to stalk birds. It lowers its head and works its tail. It can extend its spine to raise its height by at least 2 sun. Its color allows it to disappear at night. I am convinced it is superior to all other cats."

CharMakr90 "I am convinced it is superior to all other cats." I see cat owners haven't changed at all across history.

Pierre Loti, a french writer in the late 19th century, devoted a whole autobiographical work to the two cats in his household. He describes their friendships, purrsonalities, sleeping locations, their old age, and their passing over the rainbow bridge. He wrote that he could feel their emotions through their eyes, and that hits home pretty hard.

Cheezburger Image 10658924288 — *Black cat sitting on a temple roof in Japan*
*_{Scene is illustrative and does not depict actual individuals or events.}*

Capnshredder "i affixed a bow around its neck, but it did not remain for long", yea that sounds about right lol

Active_Unit_9498 I am convinced it is superior to all other cats The inner voice of all cat owners.

sweethello_755 that ink painting really nails the whole "peerless fur" thing, you can see why he'd be so taken with it. also love that a 9th century emperor basically wrote a full yelp review for his cat

Tonydragon784 Glad to see they were making :3 even back then

500 years in the future, I bet cat owners are still going to be obsessed with telling people about their cats. We might not be alive to see it, but I'd bet all my money on it without a second thought.

TheJellybean Jester Not a historian, but I went down a bit of a rabbit hole checking this because I wanted to know what the actual diary entry said, and the history behind it is somehow even better than the meme.

This really is an entry attributed to Emperor Uda (宇多天皇) in his diary, usually called the Kanpyou Gyoki / Uda Tennou Gyoki (『寛平御記』/『宇多天皇御記』)

One important caveat: Uda's original diary manuscript no longer survives. It was once known to exist in 10 volumes, but all of them were eventually lost. Parts of it survive because

later books quoted passages from it. The cat passage was preserved in Kakaishou ( ), a medieval commentary on The Tale of Genji. So we're reading a transmitted quotation of Uda's diary, rather than a manuscript physically written by Uda that has survived since the 9th century.

The entry itself is written in kanbun/Classical Chinese-style prose, as was normal for formal writing by educated Japanese courtiers at the time. And Uda REALLY loved this cat.

Cheezburger Image 10658927872 — *Black cat resting on a tatami while cleaning its paws*
*_{Still frame for contextual reference only.}*

Among other things, he says: • Other cats are only somewhat black, but this one is deep black like ink. . • When it stretches out, it is long like a drawn bow.

. • When it curls up so that its feet and tail disappear, . it looks like a dark jewel in a cavern. • When it walks, it makes no sound, "like a black dragon above the clouds."

• It is better than other cats at catching mice at night. . • His father, Emperor . Koukou, gave the cat to him, and Uda says he had already been caring for it for five years. Every morning he gave it milk gruel/porridge.

And then the entry gets unexpectedly sweet. Uda talks directly to the cat, essentially saying: "You possess the forces of yin and yang and have a complete living body. If you have a heart, surely you understand me?"

The text then says that the cat sighed, raised its head, and looked up at his face, seeming full of emotion but unable to speak.

So this wasn't actually a newly acquired cat He'd apparently had it for about five years. It was basically a young emperor taking some free time to write an elaborate post about why his longtime cat was objectively the greatest cat alive. (Some things have not changed in 1,100+ years.

There is also a really interesting issue with the date in the widely shared version. The traditional/transmitted heading is often given as ("6th day of the 2nd month of Kanpyou 1"), which is where the commonly repeated date March 11, 889 comes from.

But there is a chronological problem: the Kanpyou era did not actually begin until the 27th day of the 4th month of 889. In other words, "the second month of Kanpyou 1" cannot literally have existed.

A 2025 academic study by Takeshi Nakamura specifically treats the passage instead as 寛平元年十二月六日 (the 6th day of the 12th month) corresponding to December 31,

889. The missing + ("ten") is therefore probably a textual/transmission issue. This also explains why Japanese sources sometimes annotate the traditional A reading as an error for +=A.

One other funny translation issue: the viral English version floating around says something like "I affixed a bow about its neck."

The actual phrase is: 其伸也、長如張弓 "When it stretches out, it is long like a drawn bow."

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'I am convinced it is superior to all other cats': Diary of 22-year-old Japanese emperor reveals his thoughts about his personal black cat, proving that cat owners haven't changed since 889 A.D.

A lot of things may have changed since the 9th century, but one thing that hasn't is that cat people still think their cat is the best cat in the whole wide world.

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