According to Japanese folklore, a cat that has lived long enough can become a type of yokai called a nekomata. Nekomata is said to have been transformed by old domestic cats (40 or 100 years old or more) and there is also a view that after a cat reaches ten years of age, its tail will gradually split into two tails, and later on. It will have more magic power. In many cultures around the world, cats tend to be seen as a metaphor for women, and in Japan people also liken Nekomata to the evil of a woman.
Nekomata understands and speaks human language, after eating human flesh, it will transform into that person. In the book Nansō Satomi Hakkenden (published in 1814) by author Kyokutei Bakin also recorded this detail. The female nekomata sometimes appear in men's dreams and take all of their life energy. The Japanese also believe that people who often abuse cats will be harmed by it. If the Nekomata cultivates further, it will live indefinitely and be called Nekoshō .
Nekomata will often come into contact with the human world in many different ways, usually they will dress up as maidens and charm others by playing, singing, dancing, and communicating in human languages. They are often seen as the source of ghosts or some other supernatural phenomenon in the environment.
Some of these Nekomata's abilities are said to have been to manipulate corpses like witches, by jumping over the head of a recently deceased person and manipulating the corpse to avenge the people or families who wronged them. They also have the ability to perform curses to harm humans and when working they often stand on two legs.
In the form of a cat, Nekomata possesses the ability to become giant, which can grow to 1.5 meters or more.
Nekomata has a taste for cannibals. They even eat a lot of human flesh. According to the diary of a noble in Kyoto, Meigetsuki, he said that a Nekomata in a rage could eat 7-8 people in one night. Sometimes they even recklessly attack their owners, or transform into humans to seduce others to eat meat or suck their life energy in the long run.
There is another description of the Nekomata: They are creatures that eat evil spirits to protect humans, and can even give each other lifespans so that they can reach the peak of transfiguration. However, when cats transform into human form thanks to the longevity of other cats, they will forget their past and are required that they will not kill cats, otherwise they will be returned to their original form.
Some legends:
From the Edo period onwards, many Japanese believe that Nekomata is transformed into a long-lived domestic cat. But going back in time, during the Kamakura period, people also feared the Nekomata and viewed it as a wild beast living in the mountains. According to the diary "Meigetsuki" (recorded from 1180~1235) of the poet Fujiwara Sadaie, there is a passage that says that in the first year of the Tenpuku era (1233) in Nam Du (formerly the capital Heijō) an accident occurred. Nekomata cannibals. According to modern interpretation, it was just an animal with rabies. In the book Tsuzuregusa (1330~1331) of the poet Yoshida Kenkō of the same period of Kamakura, in paragraph 89 it is written: "Okuyama ni, Nekomata to iu mono arite, hito wo kuunaru" to hito no iikeruni... I say, deep in the mountains there is a species called Nekomata that eats humans...)
There are also local legends about mountain cats, and the name Nekomata also appears in many places, such as Mount Nekomata (Nekomata yama) in Toyama Prefecture, Mount Ghost Cat (Nekomagadake) in Fukushima Prefecture.
📚 Explore more of the Mystical Creatures series here: Dive into the Enchanted Realms of Mythology
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