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Yokai is one of those words that is inevitably lost in translation. It is a combination of the Japanese characters 妖 (yo as in yogurt), meaning “attractive,” “bewitching,” or “calamity,” and 怪 (kai) meaning “mystery” or “wonder” [6]. It has been translated a lot of different ways in English. I popped it into Google Translate and got back “monster,” “devil,” “goblin,” “demon,” and “bogy.” I’ve heard others as well. None of these translations are incorrect, but they are all incomplete. Yokai encompass a wide range of supernatural entities, including ghosts, monsters, demons, deities, and many more. Humans assigned supernatural meaning to cats almost everywhere the two species crossed paths, so it’s hardly surprising that there are cat yokai.
Bakeneko
With age comes wisdom. Magic powers, too, at least if you’re a cat. This is the legend of the bakeneko, meaning “changed cat” [2, 5, 7, 8]. Bakeneko are pet cats that have gained supernatural abilities. They are usually considered evil, but that isn’t always the case [1, 5, 7]. There are actually several ways that normal pet cats can become bakeneko, with reaching a great age being one of the most common. What that age is, exactly, varies by regional folklore [2]. Thirteen years is often the magic number [2, 5, 8].
Cats that grow to weigh at least one kan (8.25 lbs or 3.75 kg) or have a very long tail may also transform into bakeneko [1, 8]. It was also commonly believed that licking up a lot of lamp oil could turn a house cat into a bakeneko [2, 5, 8]. Cheap fish oils, like sardine oil, were used in lamps during the Japanese early modern period, so it was probably not unusual to see a cat drinking lamp oil, but it may have seemed like an unnatural thing for an animal to do [1, 2, 5].
Once a cat becomes a bakeneko, it may look no different than an ordinary cat, or it may begin to grow very large [8]. However, bakeneko are shapeshifters, frequently disguising themselves as humans, including their owners [1, 2, 5, 8]. In its natural, feline shape, a bakeneko is able to walk on its hind legs and speak human languages [1, 2, 5, 8]. They are known to dance, on two legs, sometimes with a towel or napkin on their head [1, 2, 5, 8]. Charming as that sounds, bakeneko can be quite dangerous. They can summon spectral fireballs; eat almost anything, even if it’s poisonous or bigger than they are; and reanimate corpses and manipulate them like puppets for all sorts of nefarious purposes [1, 2, 5, 8]. Bakeneko are generally considered a menace to anyone unfortunate enough to live with one, but they can actually be loyal and helpful companions as well.
The lucky maneki neko, “beckoning cats,” are a type of beneficent bakeneko [1, 7]. In all the maneki neko legends, the cat does their owner a huge favor, bringing wealth or saving their life. Now many businesses display maneki neko statues to bring good fortune.
There are also stories of bakeneko getting revenge for a wronged owner [1]. Sometimes, bakeneko just want to live their lives. They may transform into a human and then live as a human would, not bothering anybody [1, 5]. In an odd tale from Aji Island and the Oki Islands, a bakeneko turned into a human and wanted to compete in sumo [2]. These yokai are complex creatures.
Nekomata
Nekomata, on the other hand, are evil, plain and simple. Nekomata is often translated as “forked cat,” but it may also mean “again cat,” have something to do with monkeys, or mean something entirely different that has been lost to time [4, 5, 10]. There are several different forms of the word, all sharing the same character for neko, “cat,” but with different characters after [4]. The first written mention of nekomata in Japan was in 1233 [10], so there has been a lot of time for the word to evolve. That first mention came when Fujiwara no Teika recorded in his journal that in August in Nanto, a nekomata killed and ate several people in one night [4, 5, 10]. He described the nekomata as having cat eyes but “a large body like a dog” [5, 10].
In the mountain recesses, there are those called nekomata, and people say that they eat humans…
Tsurezuregusa, Yoshida Kenko, c. 1331
At the time, there was no mention of supernatural powers, and it seems that these early nekomata were simply a feared predator, though whether myth or fact remains unknown [4, 11]. There is speculation that rabies or tigers imported from China may have been the culprit, but there is no way to know for sure [4]. With time, the mountain nekomata legends grew, literally. The size of the creatures increased over centuries of stories [5]. In an 1809 writing, it was said to be more than six feet long (1.8 m) and carrying a dog in its mouth [4, 5, 10, 11].
During the Edo Period (17th – mid-19th century), people began to believe that nekomata weren’t just beasts that haunted the deep mountain hollows, but things that could invade your own home [4, 5, 10, 11]. It came to be accepted that the tails of old cats would split into two, they would gain magic powers, and they would become the malevolent nekomata [4, 5, 9-11].
Nekomata have similar powers as bakeneko, and may even be considered a type of bakeneko or a next stage of the bakeneko, although this is not necesarrily the case. However, the nekomata is much stronger and has a particular desire to cause harm [9-11]. Sometimes they focus on those that wronged them during their former life as ordinary pets [10, 11]. Sometimes nekomata just want to cause death and destruction in general. Not only are their powers greater in strength than a bakeneko, but they are also able to blackmail and even enslave humans [9, 11].
Sadly, the fear of bakeneko and nekomata led people to take certain preventative measures when it came to their pets. They docked the tails of their kittens to prevent the transformation [1, 2, 10]. People often decided they would only keep a cat for a certain number of years, and then they would abandon it, lest their pet become a yokai and cause them harm [2, 11]. It was believed that killing a cat brings down a curse that lasts either seven generations or seven lives, so it was preferable to avoid creating bakeneko and nekomata in the first place [1, 4, 10]. Of course, an unknowable number of innocent cats were harmed by these well-intentioned practices.
Breeding of the Japanese Bobtail may have helped. It’s thought that the popularity of the breed might have been due to fear of bakeneko and nekomata, a fear that clearly wasn’t strong enough to stop people from wanting pet cats [1]. Today, there is much less fear. In fact, a bakeneko festival is held in Tokyo each year near Halloween, where people dress up like cats, march in a parade, and dance like bakeneko [7]. Click to learn more about the Kagurazaka Bakeneko Festival.
Works Cited
- Bakeneko. (n.d.). Academic. Retrieved October 9, 2020, from https://enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/2775702
- Bakeneko. (2020, October 7). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bakeneko&oldid=982382332
- Casal, U.A. (1959). The Goblin Fox and Badger and Other Witch Animals of Japan. Folklore Studies, 18, 1-93. doi:10.2307/1177429
- Davisson, Z. (2012, April 21). Nekomata: The split-tailed cat. Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai. https://web.archive.org/web/20120708015623/http://hyakumonogatari.com/2012/04/21/nekomata-the-split-tailed-cat/
- Davisson, Z. (2021). Kaibyo: The supernatural cats of Japan (2nd ed.). Mercuria Press: Portland, OR.
- Mao, Yuki. (2020). All About Yokai. https://sites.temple.edu/yuki/yokai/
- Matcha Admin. (2019, October 1). The Kagurazaka Bakeneko Festival: Become a cat and join the parade (C. Mischke, Trans.). Matcha. https://matcha-jp.com/en/6661
- Meyer, M. (n.d.). Bakeneko. Yokai.com. http://yokai.com/bakeneko/
- Meyer, M. (n.d.). Nekomata. Yokai.com. http://yokai.com/nekomata/
- Nekomata. (2020, September 9). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nekomata&oldid=977577652
- Nekomata: An evil cat in Japanese folklore. (2017, June 27). Yabai. http://yabai.com/p/2318
Published October 11th, 2020
Updated July 24, 2022
