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The (化け猫, "changed cat") is a type of Japanese , or supernatural entity; more specifically, it is a , or supernatural cat. It is often confused with the , another cat-like . The distinction between them is often ambiguous, but the largest difference is that the has two tails, while the has only one.
There are legends of in various parts of Japan, but the tale of the Nabeshima Disturbance in Saga Prefecture is especially famous.
Many other animals appear as in old tales and display similar attributes: the deep tenacity of snakes, the ability of foxes () to shapeshift into women, and the brutality of 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.
One folk belief about the is that they lick lamp oil.他1999年、100頁。 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. People in the early modern period used cheap fish oils in lamps, e.g. sardine oil; that could explain cats wanting to lick them. Also, at that time the Japanese diet was based on grains and vegetables, and while the leftovers were fed to the cats, as carnivores, the cats would have lacked for protein and fat and therefore been even more attracted to lamp oils. 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 . The stealing of household objects is commonly associated with many Japanese ghosts, and thus the disappearance of lamp oil when a cat was present helped to associate the cat with the supernatural.
The mysterious air that cats possess was associated with prostitutes who worked in Edo-period red-light districts. This was the origin of a popular character in kusazōshi (among other publications), the bakeneko yūjo.
The abilities attributed to are various, including shapeshifting into humans,谷1994、171–174頁。谷1994、194–207頁。 wearing a towel or napkin on the head and dancing,谷1994、214–241頁。 speaking human words, cursing humans, manipulating dead people, possessing humans, and lurking in the mountains and taking wolves with them to attack travelers. As an unusual example, on Aji island, Oshika District, Miyagi Prefecture and in the Oki Islands, Shimane Prefecture, there is a story of a cat that shapeshifted into a human and wanted to engage in sumo.
The legend that cats could speak may have arisen from misinterpreting the cat's meowing as human language; for this reason some would say that the cat is not a type of . In 1992 (Heisei 4), in the Yomiuri newspaper, there was an article that argued that when people thought they had heard a cat speak, upon listening a second time, they realized that it was simply the cat's meowing and that it was only coincidence that it resembled a human word.
In the Edo period (1603–1867), there was a folk belief that cats with long tails like snakes could bewitch people. Cats with long tails were disliked, and there was a custom of cutting their tails. It is speculated that this is the reason that there are so many cats in Japan with short tails now, natural selection having favored those with short tails.田2000年、170–171頁。
Folk beliefs that cats can cause strange phenomena are not limited to Japan. For example, in Jinhua, Zhejiang, in China, it is said that a cat that had been raised by humans for three years would start bewitching them. Because cats with white tails are said to be especially good at this, refraining from raising them became customary. Since their ability to bewitch humans is said to come from taking in the spiritual energy of the Moon, it is said that when a cat looks up at the Moon, it should be killed on the spot, whether its tail has been cut or not.他2008年、82–97頁。
Historically, the Ryūzōji clan was older than the Nabeshima clan in Hizen. After Ryūzōji Takanobu's death, his assistant Nabeshima Naoshige held the real power, and after the sudden death of Takanobu's grandchild Takafusa, his father Masaie also committed suicide. Afterwards, since the remnants of the Ryūzōji clan created disturbances in the public order near the Saga castle, Naoshige, in order to pacify the spirits of the Ryūzōji, built Tenyū-ji (now in Tafuse, Saga). This has been considered the origin of the disturbance and it is thought that the was an expression of the Ryūzōji's grudge in the form of a cat.他1986年、694頁。 Also, the inheritance of power from the Ryūzōji clan to the Nabeshima clan was not an issue, but because of Takanobu's death, and Nabeshima Katsushige's son's sudden death, some point out that this (ghost story) arose from a dramatization of this series of events.他2006年、116–117頁。
This legend was turned into a (play). In the Kaei period (1848–1854), it was first performed in Nakamura-za as (史). The "Sagano" in the title is a place in Tokyo Prefecture, but it was actually a pun on the word . This work became very popular throughout the country, but a complaint from the Saga domain brought the performances to a quick stop. However, since the (a samurai official of the shogunate) who filed the complaint for the performances to be stopped was Nabeshima Naotaka of the Nabeshima clan, the gossip about the disturbance spread even more.他2008年、22–24頁。
After that, the tale was widely circulated in society in the (佐賀の夜桜) and the historical record book (佐賀怪猫伝). In the (a style of traditional oral Japanese storytelling), because Ryūzōji's widow told of her sorrow to the cat, it became a , and killed and ate Komori Hanzaemon's mother and wife. It then shapeshifted and appeared in their forms, and cast a curse upon the family. 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. It was Itō Sōda who exterminated it.
In the beginning of the Shōwa period (1926–1989), films such as (伝) and (敷) became quite popular. Actresses like Takako Irie and Sumiko Suzuki played the part of the and became well known as "bakeneko actresses."
During the Edo period (1603–1867), tales about began to appear in essays and collections in various areas. Tales of cats transforming into humans and talking can be seen in publications like the (説), the (嚢),岸1991年、359-360頁。 the (集), and the (記).他2005年、145-146頁。 Similarly, tales of dancing cats can be seen in the (話), and the (記). In the fourth volume of "Mimibukuro", it is stated that any cat anywhere that lives for ten years would begin to speak as a human,い、ら、10た（考：『典』）。 and that cats born from the union of a fox and a cat would begin speaking even before ten years had passed.岸1991年、35–36頁。 According to tales of cats that transform, aged cats would very often shapeshift into old women. The Edo period was the golden age for about , and with like the "Nabeshima Bakeneko Disturbance" being performed, these became even more famous.
In Makidani, Yamasaki, Shisō District, Harima Province (now within Shisō, Hyōgo Prefecture), a tale was passed down about a person in Karakawa who was a . The same kind of tale was also found in Taniguchi, Fukusaki village, Jinsai District, of the same province, where it is said that in Kongōjō-ji, a who troubled a villager was killed by someone from the temple. This was protected from arrows and bullets by a s lid and an iron pot. These, like the legend of Susanoo's extermination of Yamata no Orochi, have a commonality in that the local old families of the area played a role.
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.
have appeared in Japanese films—including more specifically the subgenre of [[horror film]]s known as "monster cat" or "ghost cat" films ( or ), a subgenre derived primarily from the repertoire of [[kabuki]] theatre. In such films, the is often depicted as a vengeful spirit that manifests itself in the form of a cat-like woman.
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