Like every good expat, I do my best to celebrate the 4th of July every year. Fortunately, in Japan, it’s very easy to get fireworks and have outdoor barbecues. Today we had one heck of a downpour that lasted most of the day, so it was no time to be outdoors celebrating, unfortunately. But my wife and I did manage to go out to eat and have a small happy 4th. Even though it was too rainy to light fireworks, I managed to paint some today instead:
Nekomata
This is Nekomata, an evil cat-yokai. It has two tails and all sorts of magic powers, such as the ability to create fireballs, change its shape, and even puppet the dead like some kind of necromancer. They often devour their masters and run the house in place of them, shapeshifting into human form whenever suspicion might be aroused.
Fireworks are a big thing in Japan, and most towns have a few fireworks festivals over the summer. The best time to see them is right now — July and August are the big summer holiday months, full of festivals, parades, outdoor markets, and all sorts of celebratory goodness. A bunch of the yokai in this book will feature festival scenes, this one included. Stay tuned for more!
So the Nekomata is just a normal cat? It sounds like Japan during the summer is a wonderful place to be! It beats the 102 degrees here.
Nekomata was once a normal cat, but it transforms into a very powerful yokai after a long age and when its tail grows to a certain length. In fact, most animals in Japan can transform into yokai this way after living for a certain number of years. Nekomata were actually quite feared for a long time in old Japan, and the custom of bobbing cats’ tails short is said to have grown popular in order to prevent house cats from becoming Nekomata.
102 degrees! Yikes! Though there are places in Japan that get that hot. Where I live it’s not much better — it gets up into the 90’s with 100% humidity… Yuck!
I’m happy to say that I’ve now translated the Japanese Wikipedia article for Nekomata and it is now on the English Wikipedia. Do check it out; it’s probably at least slightly different than what you might have previously found there.