Cats love making themselves comfortable anywhere and everywhere – including your keyboard. If you have a cat, you can probably relate to this and often find yourself letting them do whatever they want. With this cardboard cat shrine, you can take your love for your cats to the next level and worship them unironically.
Image credit: Kibidango
Image credit: @howaynekobu
Howay Industry – a Japanese manufacturer of cardboard products – recently released a do-it-yourself cardboard shrine for your cat to snuggle and chill in. The designer is Kimura, a cat-lover who has 4 cats of his own.
Image credit: @howaynekobu
Image credit: @howaynekobu
The design of the cardboard shrine is inspired by Shinto shrines in Japan. It includes a tiled roof, a suzu (bell), shide (zig-zag paper streamers), and a shrine donation box – all of which are common characteristics of Shinto shrines.
Image credit: Kibidango
The cardboard shrine measures 64cm x 48cm x 58cm and weighs about 1kg. According to the website, it should take about 30 minutes to assemble the box using the instruction manual that comes with the package.
Image adapted from: @howaynekobu and @howaynekobu
Image credit: @howaynekobu
The cardboard shrine doesn’t have a base so you can put it over your cat’s litter box or fill it with blankets and cushions for your cat to snuggle in. Make sure that the sides of your cat’s litter box don’t cover more than half of the opening, height-wise, or else your cat may have trouble going in and out of the shrine.
If you think just getting the cardboard shrine isn’t enough for your cat, you can always zhuzh it up with accessories that are sold separately.
Image credit: Kibidango
Nail sharpening tray, ¥3,410 (~USD32.61)
Image credit: Kibidango
Some of the individual items include a nail sharpening tray and a folding screen that can be used as a photo background. You can also get the cardboard shrine with a noren (curtain) for ¥5,390 (~USD51.55).
Shrine with red or blue noren, ¥5,390 (~USD51.55)
Image credit: Kibidango
Image credit: Kibidango
A full set with add-ons includes the cardboard shrine, a folding screen for photos, kadomatsu (a traditional Japanese decoration placed in pairs at the front of homes), noren, and a nail sharpening tray. This set costs ¥11,000 (~USD105.20).
Image credit: Kibidango
The shrine is currently available on Kibidango, a crowdfunding website. Even though Howay Industry has already reached their crowdfunding goal, you can still purchase the cardboard shrine for ¥4,840 (~USD46.29). Part of the sales will be channelled to Neko Republic, which runs a cat cafe that houses and protects rescue cats.
Delivery for the shrines are scheduled for mid to late December. They only deliver to Japan addresses, but you can still get your hands on it by using a parcel forwarding company.
With this cardboard cat shrine, you can show your love for your cat by giving it its own space to snuggle and chill in. Your cat might even reciprocate your love – hopefully by not crashing your online meetings – and show you more affection after receiving this gift.
Check out other interesting news here:
Cover image adapted from: @howaynekobu and @howaynekobu
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