What Breed is this Cartoon Cat Inspired By?

[derekpadula]

Hello. I'm an author writing a book about the Dragon Ball cartoon and comic book series, and I need your help to identify the breed of cat that this anthropomorphic talking cat was inspired by.

This requires some fun detective work.

Here's a picture of the talking cat, named Karin:

http://www.mangahere.com/manga/dragon_ball/v06/c088/4.html

You can click the page to advance forward and see more angles of him. 

Here's a picture of a real life cat that seems to resemble him, along with an image of what Karin looks like in the anime, with white fur:

http://en.rocketnews24.com/2013/08/22/this-cat-looks-amazingly-like-dragon-balls-korin/

Do you know the breed of this real life cat in the photograph? Are they the same as the cat illustrated in the comic?

What I do know is that the illustrator and author of Dragon Ball, named Akira Toriyama, has said that he based the face of Karin on his own cat's face as it was sleeping. The cat, named Koge, was a stray cat he picked up in the rain while living in Japan. Here is a picture of it:

See the black cat with the yellow eyes? What type of cat breed is this? Is it the same as Karin?? If it's the same, is the only difference that he changed the black fur to white?

The Cat Site... You're my only hope. Thank you!!

 

[StefanZ]

You said it yourself.   This seems to be some native Japan mixture...  Nothing common for us foreigners ["ganjin"].

Otherwise, my guess would be a british cat.  But it is really a japanese cat.   Seek there.

Possibly once upon a time it had influences from imported british cats, when contacts with the british empire were fashionable to modernize Japan.  But this is pure speculation.

Good luck!

 

[Willowy]

The white cat looks like a tom (from the wide jowls) and they just happened to get a pic of him with squinty eyes so he looks like the cartoon . But, yeah, Japanese street cats tend to be heavy built, cobby cats so that's probably what he's basing it on (I used to live in Japan). The cartoon cat also looks a lot like the standard Japanese good-luck cat figurines everybody has.

 

[derekpadula]

Thanks. This helps. I'm still not certain, but it gives me more info.

Yeah, that "lucky cat" you're talking about is the Japanese Bobtail. This is what I thought Karin was based on at first, but Karin has a full tail, not a Bob.

The other link to Toriyama's cat, Koge, wasn't included for some reason. So here it is again.

http://www.kanzenshuu.com/manga/tankobon/vol-12/

That's the black cat that he used as the model for Karin's face as he was sleeping, which is why Karin always has closed eyes.

Any idea what breed this real life cat is?