Nekomata- Japanese CreatureCreature · Monster"Forked Cat"
Also known as: 猫又 and ねこまた
Description
When a house cat lives too long, its tail splits in two and it gains the power to raise the dead, ignite ghostly fires, and take human form — which is why families in premodern Japan were warned never to keep a cat past a certain age.
Mythology & Lore
The Forked Tail
Japanese folklore held that when a domestic cat reached twelve or thirteen years of age, its tail would split in two, marking its transformation from ordinary animal to yōkai. One of the earliest references appears in the Meigetsuki, the diary of the poet Fujiwara no Teika, which records that in 1233 a nekomata in the mountains of Nara attacked and killed several people. Yoshida Kenkō's Tsurezuregusa, written in the fourteenth century, describes mountain-dwelling nekomata as predators large enough to prey on wolves and boar.
Toriyama Sekien depicted the nekomata in his Gazu Hyakki Yagyō (1776) surrounded by ghostly fire. The image captures their signature power: the tips of the forked tail ignite uncanny flames in blue or green. They also take human form, typically appearing as old women or the deceased owners of the households they once inhabited.
The Cat That Lived Too Long
A tradition from Nabeshima domain tells of a giant nekomata that killed its mistress and assumed her form, living among the household until a loyal retainer discovered the deception. The story belongs to the mountain type, the yama no nekomata, wild creatures of enormous size in remote places.
More common in everyday belief was the domestic nekomata, the house cat kept too long. A family that let its cat reach extreme age risked the animal turning on them, rearranging household objects or igniting unexplained fires. This fear influenced actual practice in premodern Japan: families were advised not to keep cats past a certain age, and some households cut their cats' tails short, believing this would prevent the supernatural splitting.