Bakeneko

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"Nekomata" redirects here. For game music composer called "Nekomata Master", see Naoyuki Sato.
Nekomata walking on its hind legs, illustrated by Toriyama Sekien.
Nekomata walking on its hind legs, illustrated by Toriyama Sekien.

A bakeneko (化け猫? "monster cat") is, in Japanese folklore, a cat with supernatural abilities akin to those of the fox or raccoon dog. A cat may become a bakeneko in a number of ways: it may reach a certain age, be kept for a certain number of years, grow to a certain size, or be allowed to keep a long tail. In the last case, the tail forks in two and the bakeneko is then called a nekomata (猫又? ,猫叉, or 猫股 "forked cat"). This superstition may have some connection to the breeding of the Japanese Bobtail.

A bakeneko will haunt any household it is kept in, creating ghostly fireballs, menacing sleepers, walking on its hind legs, changing its shape into that of a human, and even devouring its own mistress in order to shapeshift and take her place. When it is finally killed, its body may be as much as five feet in length. It also poses a danger if allowed into a room with a fresh corpse; a cat is believed to be capable of reanimating a body by jumping over it.

[edit] In popular culture

Japanese popular culture contains a large number of two-tailed cat characters based on the nekomata. Some of these include:

  • In the anime series Ayakashi(3rd arc) and Mononoke (last arc)
  • Kirara, the pet of Sango in InuYasha.
  • In the manga Shaman King, Hao Asakura's spirit ally from 1,000 years ago is a nekomata named Matamune.
  • In the manga/anime series Hyper Police the character Natsuki Sasahara is half-human/half-nekomata.
  • In the anime Inukami!, the character Tomekichi is a benevolent nekomata who honors an obligation to a deceased priest who once took care of him.
  • In the Pokémon game series, the psychic pokemon Espeon is a lavender cat-like creature with a forked tail.
  • In the video game Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army, the Skill Nekomata is an agile, human-like cat sporting a long tail.
  • In the video game Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne Beast Nekomata appear as recruitable allies in Ginza and Ikebukuro.
  • In the video game Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3, Nekomata is one of the main Protagonist's summonable Personas.
  • The character Yurine in the animation Karas appears as both a human and a white cat with a forked-tail.
  • In the series Claymore, Luciela, the abyssal one of the South, has an awakened form resembling a two-tailed cat demon.
  • In the video game Battlefield 2142, the PAC (Pan Asian Coalition) has a futuristic hover tank named the Type 32 Nekomata.
  • In Ninja Sentai Kakuranger there is a Yokai called Bakeneko.
  • In the video games Disgaea: Hour of Darkness and Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories, the player has the ability to create nekomata characters.
  • The Bakeneko was featured in episode 10, 11, and 12 of the series Mononoke.
  • Chen, from Touhou Project, is a nekomata shikigami.
  • In the Miyazaki film, My neighbor, Totoro, an unnamed character appears as a catbus. Bake neko are mentioned in several Studio Ghibli films.
  • In the games Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn there is a tribe men and women who have feline ears and tails as well as the ability to transform into large cats for combat purposes.(Lyre, Lethe, and Ranulf.)
  • In the series Naruto Kakuzu and Hidan find the two-tailed bijuu which has the appearance of a giant nekomata when fully materialized.
  • An artist by the name Nekomata Master is present in multiple Konami related video games, especially in the BEMANI series.
  • In the anime Ouran High School Host Club, a teenage yakuza leader makes a futile attempt to diminish his intimidating atmosphere by wearing cat-ears, leading his friends to call him a bake-neko as he is even scarier than before

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[edit] External links