Некомата: Японский кошачий ёкай

Kind of cat monster in Japanese folklore

Nekomata (original form: 猫また, later forms: 猫又, 猫股, 猫胯) are a kind of cat yōkai described in Japanese folklore, classical kaidan, essays, etc. There are two very different types: those that live in the mountains and domestic cats that have grown old and transformed into yōkai. Nekomata are often confused with bakeneko.

Nekomata appear in stories even earlier than in Japan. In the Sui dynasty, the words 猫鬼 and 金花猫 described mysterious cats. In Japanese literature, the nekomata first appeared in the Meigetsuki by Fujiwara no Teika in the early Kamakura period: in the beginning of Tenpuku (1233), August 2, in Nanto (now Nara Prefecture), a nekomata (猫胯) was said to have killed and eaten several people in one night. The nekomata was described as a mountain beast: according to the Meigetsuki, "They have eyes like a cat, and have a large body like a dog." The essay Tsurezuregusa from the late Kamakura period (circa 1331) asserts, "In the mountain recesses, there are those called nekomata, and people say that they eat humans (奥山に、猫またといふものありて、人を食ふなると人の言ひけるに )." However, many people question whether the nekomata really is a cat monster. Since people are said to suffer an illness called "nekomata disease (猫跨病)", some interpret the nekomata to be a beast that has caught rabies. Even in the kaidan collections, the "Tonoigusa (宿直草)" and the "Sorori Monogatari (曾呂利物語)," nekomata conceal themselves in mountain recesses; and there are stories that deep in the mountains they shapeshift into humans. In folk religion there are many stories of mountainous nekomata.

At the same time, in the Kokon Chomonjū of the Kamakura period, in the story "Kankyō Hōin (観教法印)", an old cat raised in a villa on a mountain precipice held a secret treasure, a protective sword, in its mouth and ran away. People chased the cat, but it disguised itself and left behind the thought of a monster that had disguised itself as a cat. In the aforementioned "Tsurezuregusa", in addition to nekomata that conceal themselves in the mountains, there are descriptions of pet cats that grow old, transform, and eat and abduct people. There is also a theory that the term derives from the way in which cats that grow old shed the skin off their backs and hang downwards, making it appear that they have two tails. In Japan cats are often associated with death, and this particular spirit is often blamed. Far darker and more malevolent than most bakeneko, the nekomata is said to have powers of necromancy, and upon raising the dead, will control them with ritualistic dances, gesturing with paw and tail. These yōkai are associated with strange fires and other inexplicable occurrences. The older and more abused a cat is prior to its transformation, the more power the nekomata is said to have. To gain revenge against those who wronged it, the spirit may haunt humans with visitations from their deceased relatives. Some tales state that these demons, like bakeneko, assume human appearances, usually appearing as older women, behaving badly in public, and bringing gloom and malevolence wherever they travel. Due to these beliefs, sometimes kittens' tails were cut off based on the assumption that if the tails could not fork, the cats could not become nekomata. From this discernment and strange characteristics, nekomata have been considered devilish from time immemorial. Due to fears and folk beliefs such as the dead resurrecting at a funeral, or that seven generations would be cursed as a result of killing a cat, it is thought that the legend of the nekomata was born. Also, in folk beliefs cats and the dead are related. As carnivores, cats have a keen sense of detecting the smell of rot, so it was believed that they had a habit of approaching corpses; with this folk belief sometimes the kasha, a yōkai that steals corpses are seen to be the same as the nekomata.

In the Edo period many books illustrating and describing yōkai were published (yōkai emaki), with nekomata frequently depicted. The Hyakkai Zukan published in 1737 (Gembun 2) includes an illustration of a nekomata assuming the appearance of a woman playing a shamisen. (See the first image on this page.) Since Edo period shamisen frequently were made using cat skins, that particular nekomata sang a sad song about its species as it plucked the strings. As for the nekomatas wearing geisha clothing, sometimes nekomata and geisha are considered related since geisha were once called "cats (neko)"

In Chinese lore there is a cat yōkai called "xiānlí/senri (仙狸)" (where "ri 狸" means "leopard cat"). In this telling, leopard cats that grow old gain a divine spiritual power (xian arts), shapeshift into a beautiful man or woman, and suck the spirit out of humans. Some theorize that the Japanese nekomata legends derive from Chinese xiānlí/senri tales.