Ryo and his wife Hiromni Yamazaki, in Japan love their three male Scottish Fold cats. Because the cats shed a lot, they have lots of cat fur floating around their home. What to do with all this cat fur? Solution? They create cat hats! Yes, you read that right. They felt-tip hats for cats.
Their cats errrr chapeau models are: Nya a 12-year-old blue tabby, Maru a white ten-year-old, and, Mugi a five-year-old red tabby. The photographs that Ryo posted on Instagram of their cats wearing hats became a social media sensation. They also posted an instructional video teaching cat lovers how to create cat hats.
It all started innocently when photographer Ryo found a clump of fur on the floor and plopped it onto their red headed Mugi’s head mimicking a Trump hair style after he had seen the hashtag #trumpyourcat on Instagram.
Hiromni is an artist and fur fun began molding their cats’ fur collected while grooming the cats. After first washing the fur, her creations take between 30 minutes to two hours to create. She only uses her fingers in the purr-cess and some of her hat-art includes: top hats, an acorn, Trump hair, bunny ears, dog heads, Princess Leia hair, suchi ears, panda and koala bears, fish, duck, Christmas decorations, etc. Altogether, she makes over 100 cat hat styles!
Cat hair floating around most homes, clinging to lampshades and clothes is an ongoing battle for most cat parents, but not for the Yamazakis!
“It’s like treasure hunting and harvest time all rolled into one,” laughs Ryo.
After Hiromi created three matching mountain-shaped hats for her kitties, she popped them on the cats’ heads as they were peacefully gazing out the window.
“I photographed them from behind. It was so beautiful,” Ryo said. “Our Instagram account, @rojiman, has more than 117,000 followers.”
Hiromi is self-taught and hopes to one day teach the craft to fellow feline lovers. The Japanese word “nukege,” translates “to shed hair” and generally re-furs to a balding man. Having had five Persians at one time “nukege” means a nuclear summer-shedding explosion of our cats blowing their coats around the house! We take our hats off to the Yamazakis on their creativity recycling cat fur while making us all smile.
