Nekomata

An essay in Yoshida Kenkō 's 1331 Tsurezuregusa asserts, "In the mountain recesses, there are those called nekomata, and people say that they eat humans...

In the "Gūisō (寓意草)" of 1809 (Bunka 6), a nekomata that held a dog in its mouth was described as having a span of 9 shaku and 5 sun (about 2.8 meters).

[7] At the same time, in the setsuwa collection Kokon Chomonjū, 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.

In the aforementioned Tsurezuregusa, aside from nekomata that conceal themselves in the mountains, there are descriptions of pet cats that grow old, transform, and eat and abduct people.

[1] In the "Ansai Zuihitsu (安斎随筆)" the courtier Sadatake Ise stated, "A cat that is several years of age will come to have two tails, and become the yōkai called nekomata."

Attempting to end those events, the samurai called upon countless shamans, priests and evokers; but none of them could locate the source of the terror.

One day, one of the most loyal servants saw his master's aged cat carrying in its mouth a shikigami with the samurai's name imprinted on it.

Collection of 100 fairy tales), written by Yusuke (祐佐, or Yūsa) in 1723 and in Rōō Chabanashi (老媼茶話, Tea-time gossip of old ladies), by Misaka Daiyata (三坂大彌), 1742.

[8] There is also a theory that the term derives from how cats that grow old shed the skin off their backs and hang downwards, making it appear that they have two tails.

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.

Since Edo-period shamisen frequently used cat skins, that particular nekomata sang a sad song about its species as it plucked the strings.

[12] In the Bigelow ukiyo-e collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Hyakki Yagyō Emaki includes a similar composition, leading some scholars to see a relationship between the books.

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.