Nekomata

For this week's bonus episode, we're heading over to Japan and looking at a cute, but deadly yokai - the Nekomata! How can you tell apart these felines from normal cats? Why are these linked to bad cat stereotypes throughout ancient Japanese culture? Find out this week!

Transcript

INTRO:
Hello and welcome to Myth Monsters, my name is Erin and I’ll be your host for these little snack bite size podcasts on folklore and mythical monsters from around the world. 

These podcasts focus on the actual cryptids, folklore and mythic monsters from global mythology, rather than focusing on full stories of heroes and their big adventures.

I’ll also be dropping in some references that they have to recent culture and where you can see these represented in modern day content so you can learn more, and get as obsessed as I am about these absolute legends of the mythological world.

Boom! Semi-surprise double feature week, thankfully I managed to recover enough to write out and record two episodes during the literal one day I felt okay this week so please have this very rare treat - this will not be repeated without reason, I promise you that.

DESCRIPTION:

For this last treat of the week, we’re looking at something pretty warm and fuzzy with a dangerous edge, and heading over to one of my favourite places for folklore, Japan, to look at the cute but deadly Nekomata.

The Nekomata is described as just a regular domestic cat, but Nekomata have a distinct thing that tells them apart - a tail split down the centre to create two identical tails. They can also be wild big cats, such as leopards, lions and panthers, but these do not live in cities like the domestic cats. They do sometimes wear clothing or wear a napkin on their head to dance in, as they would only get about on their hind legs.

The Nekomata is considered a yokai, which I talk about in all my Japanese monster episodes as it means spirit or sometimes demon - however this one has its own category within yokai and is a Kaibyo, meaning strange cat. There are three types of Kaibyo yokai, the Nekomata, the Bakeneko and the Maneki-neko. I know that our episode is focused on the Nekomata, but it’s worth going over the others too as they are all related. 

The Bakeneko or the changed cat is officially a different yokai but there are only two differences. Whilst Nekomata have two tails, the Bakeneko only has one and the Nekomata is transformed into yokai from evil done to it, whilst the Bakeneko are just yokai from the start. I won’t be covering them in another episode because there’s just not much to differentiate them. They are also sometimes benevolent, whereas Nekomata are generally considered to be malevolent.

The Maneki-neko is not a yokai at all in theory, it’s actually the Japanese waving cat statues that you might see in a Japanese store, restaurant or just around Japan. These are usually Japanese bobtail cats holding a koban coin as they are used to bring good luck and good fortune to the owner. Whilst they’re not strictly yokai, the good fortune supposedly comes from a feline spirit - which does in practise, make them a yokai in their own right. 

Back to our monster though, Nekomata are considered evil yokai and they really don’t like humans. They have the power to summon fireballs from their tails as well as some necromancy skills where they can control the dead like feline puppet masters to do their bidding. As well as this, they can shapeshift into people to control them that way or get them to come a little closer so that they can eat you. They do in fact eat people, but they also eat anything that’s meaty and good enough for them to eat - much like normal cats. 

They could also talk in human languages, dance and play instruments, curse or possess humans, haunt people with their dead family members or convince other animals to attack humans too - so they were considerably devilish. There’s even a story of a Nekomata waiting for a traveller so it could get into a sumo fight with them. When they were in human forms, they enjoyed making fools out of the humans they were impersonating or generally bringing doom and gloom on anyone they came across.

So how do these monsters come about? We know there are good kitties out there that won’t try and murder us, so what happened to these ones? Nekomata come to be in older aged cats as Japanese folktales tell of cats only being allowed to be looked after for a few years depending on the local people, such as 12 years in Ibaraki, 13 in Okinawa and 7 years in Hiroshima, this is because they believed that the cat will kill the one that raised it. Therefore, people would choose how long they would look after cats, rather than taking a cat and caring for it as long as it lives. It was also believed that if you killed any cat, a Nekomata would appear to take revenge and curse you. The older the cat, and the longer the tail - the more powerful the Nekomata or Bakeneko would be.

Nekomata were born from the need for revenge, and would actively hunt humans down, especially their previous owners. However, whilst there were domestic Nekomata from domestic cats, if a cat ran off to the mountains and was not seen again, it was also considered a Nekomata, but would come back in a lion or leopard form from being in the wilderness. They would hunt on bigger game such as boar, deer and livestock as well as humans and grow to really big sizes, so are considered the most dangerous types of Nekomata.

ORIGIN:

For etymology, Nekomata means forked cat in Japanese, with neko meaning cat and mata meaning split. However, there are some interpretations of mata also meaning repetition or old. It’s quite a basic one, but I appreciate the ease honestly. 

In history, the rumours of cats as yokai started within the Kamakura period in Japan, which was between 11 85-13 33, as cats tend to do ‘suspicious and strange things’ it was quoted. However, Bakeneko and Nekomata were only specifically brought in in the Edo period in Japan, which was between 1603-1867, during a time where a lot of their yokai myths were being created and superstition was at its highest. This is no exception for these poor cats and all of this monster’s history comes from folktales.

There’s a really good story about these monsters that I’ve found for you, called the tale of Takasu Genbei which goes like this; A man called Takasu lost his family cat and found that his mother’s personality completely changed afterwards. She avoided all company and ate alone in her room at night, when the family went to check on her, they found a cat-like monster in the mother’s clothes, devouring animal bones. Takasu ran in and killed the beast - but it still looked slightly like his mum. After a day, the body had turned back into his missing pet cat and Takasu, desperate to find his mother amidst the rotting carcusses, found her beneath the floorboards of her room with her bones picked clean.

Another story is that of a rich samurai's haunted house where the inhabitants had some poltergeists. The samurai got a load of shamans and priests to remove it but none of them could figure out the source. One day, a servant saw his master's older cat carrying a Shikigami, which was a summoned ghost, in its mouth with the samurai's name written on it. He shot it with an arrow and the servant hit the cat in its head. The cat died and revealed the two tails, proving it was a Nekomata and the poltergeist activity stopped.

To back up these stories, there were a lot of beliefs within the Japanese culture that backed up why these cats or any cat was bad news. In Japan, cats were generally associated with death and even called demonic because of this monster due to their links with necromancy. Cats naturally have a keen smell for decay of living tissue and so they also believed that the Nekomata would sniff out corpses to give to another yokai, the Kasha, who would steal evil corpses to carry their souls down to hell.

The most prevalent belief was that cats with long tails could bewitch people because they resemble snakes. Generally cats with longer tails were hated and there was even a custom to cut their tails short. This is a theory as to why there are a lot of species of Japanese cats now that have short tails, as they grew in this way due to natural selection. It was a really barbaric practice, but even as kittens - cats had their tails cut off to prevent their transformation.

There was also that the aged cat would become a problem cat, why they thought that as a cat got older, their tails would split - I do not know unfortunately, but cats have been an interesting creature in folklore and superstition throughout the ages and the world. In Japanese mythology, cats are seen as yokai because of their characteristics such as their eyes dilating depending on the light, their fur causing sparks due to static, their silent stalking, their need to hunt and eat gore and their general unpredictability. Cats are considered an animal that is independent, whilst they still love a cuddle - they are known for striking out, being out in the dark and being incredibly fast and agile. 

They used to lick lamp oil, which was considered an ill omen back in the Edo period indicating there was to be a strange occurrence. Lamp oil was traditionally fish oil because it was cheap and cats were generally only fed leftovers from their owners - in Japan, the main diet at the time were grains and vegetables, which a cat cannot eat as they’re carnivores. Stealing household objects was also a sign of a yokai as well as an animal standing on their hind legs, so this sight probably made them believe this too. To add some more fuel to the fire, they were also the common pet of prostitutes due to their mysterious nature so were very often linked to sin and devilish behaviour. 

Cats miaows were also often misinterpreted as them speaking and most of the time the Nekomata would say ‘I’m not a yokai’ which is pretty funny. However, they actually did a study about this in 1992 and found that once people heard the miaow a second time, they would realise it was a cat miaowing and come to the conclusion that it only sounded like a human word by coincidence. 

Now onto relating it to reality, I’ve gone a lot into breaking down cat stereotypes so I’ll just cover this last potential bit, there was also a disease named after Nekomata, the Nekomata disease, funnily enough. Whilst the earlier Japanese people believed this was animals being transformed into Nekomata, we now believe that this was rabies - which does explain the strange behaviour, but not so much the split tail. 

I said earlier that there were loads of monsters based around cats because of superstitions and I wasn’t lying, however, there are a lot. The Xiānlí of China is a great monster that is relatively close to this one, it’s a leopard-like monster that would get to old age and gain divine power and then shapeshift into a beautiful man or woman and suck the soul out of anyone it found. A fun one we’ll cover another time, but apparently this is where the inspiration for the Nekomata came from. 

We also have to mention the canine counterpart for this monster, which I would give to the Kitsune from Japanese mythology. These nine-tailed foxes would cause trouble and were very into shape shifting for chaos, but would sometimes fall in love with humans and choose to stay that way - so slightly more like the Bakeneko rather than the evil Nekomata. I covered them not too long ago if you’re interested in hearing more about these ethereal Japanese fox creatures.

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: 

Now onto modern media, we’ve actually got a few bits for the Nekomata itself which is pretty good! 

For art, have a look at Nekomata by Sawaki Suushi, Nekomata to lu Koto by Ogita Ansei from 1660, Nekomata from Bakemono no e in 1700 & Nekomata by Sekien Toriyama for some traditional Japanese scroll paintings of them. Otherwise, there are some really cool independent art pieces around these monsters. I used Matthew Meyer’s Nekomata piece in my advertising this week.

In movies, we have; Hausu, Blind Woman’s Curse, The Ghost Cat Cursed Pond, Kuroneko, The Ghost Cat of Otama Pond, Black Cat Mansion, Ghost Cat Wall of Hatred, The Ghost Cat and the Mysterious Shamisen, Arima Neko & Ghost of Saga Mansion.

For TV, we have; Super Sentai, Yokai Watch, Koi Neko, Mokke, Naruto, Persona 5: The Animation, Inuyasha, Hyper Police, Neko Musume Michikusa Nikki, Omamori Himari, The Fox and the Little Tanuki, Gegege No Kitaro, High School DxD, Kamichu!, Yokai Girls, Tokimeki Mononoke Jogakkou, Shaman King, Ranma ½, Ushio and Tora, Tsukipro, Star Twinkle Pretty Cure, Blue Exorcist, Digimon, Cat God, Fire Force, Dog Days & Pokemon.

In video games, we have ones such as; Cyberpunk 2077, Disgaea, Boo Party, Genshin Impact, Flash of the Blade, Nioh, Luigi’s Mansion 3, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Coffee Talk, BlazBlue, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Pokemon, Yokai Watch, Touhou Project, Persona, Bleach: Brave Souls, Ayakashi: Romance Reborn, Haru kanaru Toki no Naka de, Neko Atsume, Sonic the Hedgehog & Yokai Hunter Shintaro.

My book recommendation this week is Yokai Attack!: The Japanese Monster Survival Guide and Yurei Attack!: The Japanese Ghost Survival Guide by Hiroko Yoda, as they are just fantastic books - I will never stop suggesting these. I'm sorry, but they’re great! 

DO I THINK THEY EXISTED? 

Now it’s time for, do I think they existed?

No, but I have a good reason for this one. It’s the story that has plagued cats and cat owners for as long as they’ve been around, that a cat owns you - a stereotype that I personally do not agree with. The best way I describe cats to people who don’t like them, is that cats are a perfect personification of boundaries. A cat will tell you in its body language or vocalisation that you are winding it up, and it's going to smack you - if you choose to continue, it will do so. I think that it’s a great measure of a person if they dislike cats because of this, and it indicates to me that they’ll never respect human boundaries either.

The Nekomata is not a surprising monster to me as someone who loves and owns cats, I’m very used to those superstitions and so a monster being created to villainise them more is not at all out of the question. However, Japan does have an interesting rule of turning literally anything into a monster - so I don’t hold it against them too much. I really love this monster though, and I like that it stands against cat violence so that’s a winner in my book.

But what do you think? Did the Nekomata sneak around Japan trying to find new human victims to use as scratching posts? Let me know on Twitter!

OUTRO: 

A great way to end our double episode week - I really enjoyed this one, and I’m a big cat lover so it was an easy one. I also love looking at yokai and because Japan has sooooo many mythical monsters, I have to space them out so you get something different. Otherwise, I could literally do a spin off about Japanese yokai and keep going for about a year at least. 

This monster was recommended by Kitsune RMG who left a lovely review for us - so thank you so much Kitsune and I hope you enjoyed this one!

Next week, we’re looking at another legendary bird and heading over to ancient Persia for their MOST famous mythical bird. She will happily watch the world burn down three times with you, it’s the Simurgh coming next Thursday.

For now, thank you so much for listening, it’s been an absolute pleasure. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a rating on the service you’re listening on - I’ve got the twitter for any questions, or suggestions on what monsters to cover next and I’d love to hear from you. The social media handles for Tiktok, Youtube, Threads and Instagram are mythmonsterspodcast, and twitter is mythmonsterspod. But all of our content can be found at mythmonsters.co.uk - you can also find us on Goodpods, Buymeacoffee and Patreon if you want to help me fund the podcast too.

Come join the fun though and share this with your pals, they might love me as much as you do.

But for now, stay spooky and I’ll see you later babes.