The Presence of the Cat in Japanese Culture

Take a quick look at anything related to Japanese pop culture and you’ll see that Japan loves cats: Hello Kitty, brown Neko, Electronic Cat Ears that respond to your emotional state, etc.

But although on the one hand they love them, on the other they are afraid of them or sometimes even a certain disgust since within their folklore there are often cats with supernatural powers and sometimes even terrifying, from the capricious and magical shape-shifters ( bakeneko ) to the horrendous corpse-eating demonic ( kasha )

No one knows exactly when or how cats came to Japan, although the best guess is that they traveled the Silk Road from Egypt to China and Korea. They were then brought on ships, crossed the sea to Japan, and arrived as mouse catchers to safeguard precious Buddhist sutras written on vellum or as expensive gifts exchanged between emperors to curry favor with one another.

There is a first confirmed record of a cat in Japan, where it can be established with certainty that they were already roaming the island by that time and this is found in an ancient diary written by Emperor Uda around the year 889 AD:

“On the 6th day of the second month of the first year of the Kampo era. Taking a moment of my free time, I wish to express my joy for the cat. It arrived by ship as a gift to the late emperor, received from the hands of Minamoto no Kuwashi.

The color of the coat is incomparable. None could find the words to describe it, though one said it was reminiscent of the deepest ink. He has an air about it, similar to Kanno. Its length is 5 soles and its height is 6 soles. I put a noose around his neck, but it didn’t stay on for long.”

And so it continues for a few more lines, describing the animal and the behavior it adopts in the different situations that the Emperor was observing. Cats arrived in Japan and over the centuries, they multiplied and spread until in the twelfth century they were common throughout the island. It was then that his presence began to have slightly more supernatural transformations.

For several centuries, Japan has a popular belief that when things live for a long time, they manifest magical powers . There are many ancient stories that explain the belief in this, as is the case with foxes , tanuki , snakes , and even objects such as chairs or umbrellas . However, cats seem to be somewhat unique in the myriad of powers they can manifest and their multitude of forms, perhaps because they are not indigenous to Japan.

While Japanese society developed living with foxes and tanuki, cats had that aura of coming from outside the known world. If we combine the natural mysterious nature of cats, their ability to stretch to seemingly unnatural proportions, the ability to walk without making a sound and their glowing eyes that change shape at night, it turns out to be the perfect recipe for having them as a magical animal.

The first known appearance of a supernatural cat in Japan came in the 12th century where a huge two-tailed cat , nicknamed the nekomata , reportedly stalked the forests of what is now Nara Prefecture, to devour men. Since the area was surrounded by mountains and forests, hunters and loggers regularly went to these forests around the city to work and trade. Always being wary of common dangers within a forest, this magical monster was far beyond what they were used to. According to local newspapers of the time, there were several nekomata victims who, by descriptions of those who had survived their attacks, looked more like a two-tailed tiger than the pampered pets of Emperor Uda. Indeed, having already traded with China and the mainland, the nekomata may well have been a tiger, possibly as part of a menagerie of wild animals.

Towards the end of the 12th century, the stories of the nekomata and the supernatural cats were forgotten for several centuries. It wasn’t until the Edo period (1603-1867) that Japan’s magical cat population exploded as the country experienced a flourishing of art and culture with Kabuki theatre, Ukiyoe paintings, Geisha, first impressions of reading material. With this, artists and writers discovered that they could create and represent magical events and supernatural beings that became known as Yokai .

With all kinds of creations, it was around this time that a new species of supernatural cat appeared: the shape-shifting bakeneko . As Japan urbanized, cat and human populations shared the same space, and since cats were everywhere, not only as house pets and mousers, but also as unowned cats eating scraps given to them by merchants, fishmongers and cooks.

The bakeneko could transform into a human and in Japanese houses, being lit mainly by fish oil lamps, the cats licked up the oil which caused huge shadows to be cast on the walls at night in the bright light of the lamp. walls, seemingly transforming into huge creatures standing on their hind legs as they licked up the oil, making them appear human. Cats that lived longer than normal were believed to have become these bakeneko , having killed their owners and taken their place.

Around 1781, rumors began to spread that some of the courtesans in the walled districts in the capital city of Edo were not human, but had been transformed into bakeneko . Eventually, these stories expanded beyond these women to encompass kabuki actors, entertainers, and comedians as well. It was believed that when these cats left their houses at night, they would put on kimonos, draw sake and the shamisen , and basically throw wild parties before sneaking back home at dawn.

These stories proved irresistible to artists who produced illustrations depicting the wild world of cats dancing and drinking late into the night. Cats were depicted as anthropomorphic human-cat hybrids (although bakeneko were also capable of shapeshifting into fully human forms). They moved in the underworld, smoked a pipe and played dice.

On the other hand, the kasha , a demon from hell that feeds on corpses, were once normal house cats. As the stories go, the smell of the corpses filled them with such an overwhelming desire and feast that with their necromantic powers they were said to be able to manipulate corpses like puppets, making them stand up and dance. The history of the kasha remains part of the culture within funeral services. In Japan, after the death of a loved one, it is customary to hold a wake where the body is brought home and the family gathers. Because of what the stories say, cats are taken out of the room where the wake is held as part of a superstition.

Some feline creatures, such as the neko musume , were thought to be cat-human hybrids born from a cat’s curse on the makers of the traditional shamisen instrument, which uses drums stretched with cat skins. Legend has it that a shamisen maker became very greedy and was cursed with a neko musume daughter as revenge. Instead of a human daughter, he raised a cat in human form that was unable to speak and ate rats.

But also in Japanese folklore, cats are a symbol of good luck and with protective powers. For this reason, perhaps the most revered supernatural cat is the maneki-neko. Legend has it that centuries ago, a feudal lord was standing under a tree when he saw a cat that curiously waved at him as if asking him to come closer. to the. The feudal lord approached the cat and a moment later lightning struck the tree the feudal lord was standing on before. In this way, the nobleman recognized that the cat was calling him to protect him from the lightning that was about to fall. From this story, many shops, establishments and restaurants in Japan display the figure of the maneki-neko in their shop windows and windows to augur well for the store, the owner and the customers.

And finally, there is the island of Tashirojima , an island where the number of cats exceeds the number of people by more than five to one, which is why it is known as the “Island of Cats” .