Tama the cat, Japan's beloved stationmaster and the savior of a struggling local railway, passed away last week. Her funeral was attended by thousands of people and she was elevated into a Shinto goddess.

Tama's story began in 2007 when Mitsunobu Kojima, the president of Wakayama Electric Railway, appointed the calico cat honorary stationmaster at the then unmanned Kishi station in Wakayama prefecture.

At the time, the Wakayama Railway was on the verge of bankruptcy and all the staff at the Kishi station had been relieved. Tama was a stray who lived around the station and Kojima admitted to the Associated Press that appointing Tama as stationmaster was his excuse for keeping the cat at the station.

As stationmaster, Tama's job was to welcome and see off passengers. She turned out to be quite good at her job. Wearing her custom-made stationmaster's cap, the quiet but playful Tama soon attracted tourists, and the more people used the line and visited Tama, the more money poured into the railway and the local economy. The revered stationmaster is credited with contributing around 1.1 billion yen ($8.9 million) to the local economy.

Unfortunately, age took its toll on the beloved cat and Tama got sick with a sinus infection. The 16-year-old cat succumbed to heart failure on June 22.

A Shinto-style funeral was held at the station for Tama and around 3,000 people attended. During the ceremony, the local icon was raised to the status of goddess. She was also bestowed the title "honorable eternal stationmaster."

The station put up several portraits of the stationmaster, some with her wearing her hat and a blue cape. Visitors left gifts of sake, fruits, vegetables and cans of tuna among the portraits and said a prayer for her.

Her benefactor thanked Tama and said she will be enshrined at a nearby cat shrine in August. In his speech, Kojima said that "Tama-chan really emerged like a savior, a goddess."

Kishi station would not be deprived of a stationmaster for long though. Another calico cat, Nitama, is being groomed to be the next stationmaster.