Bakeneko
The reason that cats are seen as yōkai in Japanese mythology is attributed to many of their characteristics: for example, the pupils of their eyes change shape depending on the time of day, their fur can seem to cause sparks when they are petted (due to static electricity), they sometimes lick blood, they can walk without making a sound, their wild nature that remains despite the gentleness they can show, they are difficult to control (unlike dogs), their sharp claws and teeth, nocturnal habits, and their speed and agility.
[4][5] Many other animals appear as yōkai in old tales and display similar attributes: the deep tenacity of snakes, the ability of foxes (kitsune) to shapeshift into women, and the brutality of bake-danuki in eating humans depicted in the Kachi-kachi Yama folktale from the Edo period.
However, cats figure in a great number of tales and superstitions because they live with humans yet retain their wild essence and air of mystery.
[6] In the Edo period encyclopedia Wakan Sansai Zue, it is said that a cat licking this oil is an omen of an impending strange event.
[10] Moreover, the sight of a cat standing on its hind legs to reach a lamp, its face lit with anticipation, could have seemed eerie and unnatural, like a yōkai.
[19] One famous bakeneko story is about a man named Takasu Genbei, whose mother's personality changed completely after his pet cat went missing for many years.
Takasu then tore up the floorboards of his mother's room to find her skeleton hidden there, her bones gnawed clean of all flesh.
[11] There is a bakeneko legend that takes place in the time of Nabeshima Mitsushige, the second daimyō of the Saga Domain, Hizen Province.
The cat licked the mother's blood, became a bakeneko, went into the castle, and tormented Mitsushige every night until his loyal retainer Komori Hanzaemon finally killed it and saved the Nabeshima family.
In the kōdan (a style of traditional oral Japanese storytelling), because Ryūzōji's widow told of her sorrow to the cat, it became a bakeneko, and killed and ate Komori Hanzaemon's mother and wife.
In the historical record book, this was completely unrelated to the Ryūzōji event, however, and a foreign type of cat, which had been abused by Nabeshima's feudal lord Komori Handayū, sought revenge and killed and ate the lord's favorite concubine, shapeshifted into her form, and caused harm to the family.
In the collection of setsuwa (oral tradition of folktales before the 14th century), the Kokon Chomonjū, from this period, there can be seen statements pointing out cats that do strange and suspicious things, noting that "these are perhaps ones that have turned into demons.
"[25] Old stories about bakeneko from that time period are often associated with temples, but it is thought that the reason for this is that when Buddhism came to Japan, in order to protect the sutras (sacred texts) from being chewed on by rats, cats were brought along too.
Tales of cats transforming into humans and talking can be seen in publications like the Tōen Shosetsu (説),[19] the Mimibukuro (嚢),[26][27] the Shin Chomonjū (集),[28] and the Seiban Kaidan Jikki (記).
[5] In 1909, articles about cats that broke into dance in tenement houses in the Honjo neighbourhood of Tokyo were published in newspapers such as the Sports Hochi, the Yorozu Chōhō, and the Yamato Shimbun.
