Security guards at a Japanese art museum have been besieged by the most fearsome and persistent of opponents: a pair of neighbourhood cats.
The Onimichi Municipal Museum in Hiroshima, south Japan, has been locked in a war of attrition with the fiendish felines for at least three years, posting updates to its Twitter account as the battle rages on.
映像『入られんよ。can’t come in. 』(H301109)スタッフ撮影の美術館周辺の猫スナップをご紹介。(spin off 2018、不定期配信) #尾道 #千光寺公園 #尾道市立美術館 #猫 #黒猫 #cat #onomichi pic.twitter.com/DweFZTC8nF
— 尾道市立美術館 (@bijutsu1) November 9, 2018
Videos posted by the museum’s official Twitter account have been shared tens of thousands of times in recent weeks, gathering millions of views in the process.
The footage shows a tentative stalemate reached by guards and cats, one resilient in their refusal to bend the rules, the other resigned to probing any gaps that may present themselves.
映像『また明日。See you tomorrow. 』(H301031)スタッフ撮影の美術館周辺の猫スナップをご紹介。(spin off 2018、不定期配信) #尾道 #千光寺公園 #尾道市立美術館 #猫 #茶トラ #cat #onomichi pic.twitter.com/ENOlWIHYkl
— 尾道市立美術館 (@bijutsu1) October 31, 2018
The most famous pair, a ginger cat called Go and a black cat called Ken, have featured on the Twitter account for months. But the museum staff’s relationship with local cats goes back years.
The museum first started posting regularly about the local moggies in late 2015 in an apparent bid to get more followers on social media.
“The cat of the restaurant next door is resting in the museum site today,” they wrote in October 2015, captioning pictures of a pair of cats resting peacefully in the grounds.
Little did they know that these calculating cats were just biding their time.
お隣のレストランの猫ちゃん達、今日も美術館敷地内で休憩中です。 pic.twitter.com/dWFmUkKBIU
— 尾道市立美術館 (@bijutsu1) October 10, 2015
Cats became a regular feature in the museum gift shop, with cards, badges and umbrellas made by local artists all going on sale in 2016 as the venue held a cat-themed festival of art.
But within months they were over-run.
“Onomichi City Museum of Art is open from 9:00. There is a procession, but the cat cannot enter,” they wrote in May 2016.
おはようございます。尾道市立美術館、もうすぐ9時から開館です。行列ができつつありますが、ネコは入館できません。 pic.twitter.com/r9RuBx1lI7
— 尾道市立美術館 (@bijutsu1) May 28, 2016
The cat exhibition only served to anger the trespassers further, it seems, as all manner of items picturing cats were allowed inside the building but the real deal was not.
“The cat is naughty to the staff as a result of asking the back door of the museum,” reads a translation of a post in June 2016.
今日もねこ展は大盛り上がり。ねこ割をご紹介します。ねこになりきって美術館にきたら100円引き!ねこ仮装、ねこ耳をつけてくる、ねこのグッズを持ってくる、などもOK(麓)
「美術館の裏口をたずねた結果、職員にいたずらされるねこ」 pic.twitter.com/D7px992HrA
— 尾道市立美術館 (@bijutsu1) June 30, 2016
By 2017 it was all-out war.
“The battle between cats and guards on Wednesday… goes far beyond our expectations,” reads a tweet in March of last year, showing a black cat strutting down a wall in the museum grounds.
“The black cat Ken is surprisingly muscular,” they added.
水曜日の猫と警備員の攻防が、予想をはるかに越える大反響となり、職員一同、身が引き締まる思いであります。リツイート&イイね、ありがとうございました。本映像は、昨秋、閉館後に撮影されたものです。ここだけの話、黒猫のケンちゃんは、意外と筋肉質だにゃん。 pic.twitter.com/OxWle4W9ia
— 尾道市立美術館 (@bijutsu1) March 27, 2017
As time passed, the museum began selling bags and memorabilia featuring the fearless felines and commemorating the ongoing battle.
“It will be exhibited in the corridor of the entrance of the museum where the battle of cats and guards is also held, and we will welcome you from the morning,” the museum said in a tweet announcing the models.
The museum even went as far as celebrating the cats during a festival of lights and immortalising the ginger and black twosome as yin and yang on a special gift bag.
ただ今、尾道灯りまつりの開催に合わせて夜間開館中。午後8時(入館は午後7時30分)まで開館中ですので、ぜひお立ち寄りください。 #尾道 #千光寺公園 #尾道市立美術館 #猫 #茶トラ #cat #onomichi #尾道灯りまつり pic.twitter.com/TQGUrbatsj
— 尾道市立美術館 (@bijutsu1) October 13, 2018