The Cat by the Hearth
Imagine a household cat who has lived a very long time. Longer than cats should. Its fur has thinned, its eyes have gone strange and knowing, and one night, by the low light of the hearth, the family notices that its single tail has split cleanly into two.
In the old stories, that is the moment the household falls silent. The pet they fed and warmed for years is not a pet anymore. It is a nekomata (猫又, pronounced neh-koh-MAH-tah), a two-tailed cat yokai, and it may have been listening to every secret spoken in that house.
I have a soft spot for the nekomata because it lives so close to home. Most yokai lurk in mountains or graveyards. This one sleeps on your quilt.
What a Nekomata Is
The name nekomata is written 猫又. The first character, 猫 (neko), simply means “cat.” The second, 又 (mata), means “again” or “fork,” and here it points to the creature’s signature feature: the forked or doubled tail.
A nekomata is a cat that has lived so long, or grown so large, that it crosses over into the supernatural. Its tail splits in two. It learns to stand and walk on its hind legs. It gains the power of human speech. And, in the darker tales, it gains far worse powers than that.
The heart of the legend is a quiet warning. The animal you trust completely, the one that shares your fire and your food, may one day become something you no longer understand.
Feed a creature long enough and it learns your habits. The nekomata is the fear that one day it learns your secrets, and stops being grateful.
Bakeneko or Nekomata?
Before going further, we need to separate two closely linked cat spirits, because they are constantly confused.
The bakeneko (化け猫), the “changed cat,” is the broader category. It is a house cat that has gained supernatural power: shapeshifting, walking upright, speaking, sometimes taking human form to deceive people. The bakeneko is eerie but often still tied to the household.
The nekomata is generally seen as the more advanced and more dangerous stage. Its defining mark is the split tail, and its powers run deeper and darker. Where a bakeneko might trick or unsettle, a nekomata can kill, curse, and command the dead.
A rough way to hold it in mind: a bakeneko is a cat that has changed, while a nekomata is a cat that has changed and turned. Not every source draws the line in exactly the same place, but the split tail and the greater menace almost always mark the nekomata.
Two Kinds of Nekomata
Folklore actually gives us two rather different nekomata, and it helps to know both.
The Household Nekomata
The first is the domestic kind, the aged pet described above. The belief was widespread enough that people took real precautions. In some regions it was said a cat should not be kept too many years, or that a cat’s tail should be bobbed while young so it could never split and the animal could never transform. That last belief is sometimes offered as one folk explanation for Japan’s fondness for short-tailed cats.
The household nekomata was thought to resent cruelty. Mistreat the cat, and the yokai it became might repay the abuse. Treat it well, and you might still not be safe, because its loyalty was never the point.
The Mountain Nekomata
The second kind is far larger and wilder. Medieval writers described a beast in the deep mountains, big as a dog or larger, that hunted and even devoured people. This mountain nekomata is less a transformed pet and more a monstrous predator of the wilderness, closer in spirit to the fearsome creatures of the high forests than to anything by the hearth.
One famous early mention, from a court noble’s diary in the thirteenth century, records rumors of a nekomata in the mountains killing several people in a single night. Whether beast or spirit, the fear was real.
The Powers of the Nekomata
What makes the nekomata genuinely frightening is the sheer range of its abilities. It is not a one-trick monster.
- Speech and shapeshifting. A nekomata can talk, walk upright, and take on human form, often that of an old woman, to move unseen among people.
- Fire and curses. It is associated with mysterious fires and with laying curses on those who wronged it or its household.
- Control of the dead. This is the darkest gift. In many tales the nekomata can manipulate corpses, making the dead rise and move like puppets. This puppet-master power over the recently deceased is the nekomata’s most infamous and dreaded trait.
That last ability places the nekomata in eerie company. It brushes against the world of the yurei, the lingering spirits of the dead, and it can carry the vengeful streak of an onryo when it acts on a grudge. A creature that both shares your home and commands the dead is a uniquely unsettling idea.
The Nekomata Among Other Yokai
The nekomata belongs to a rich tradition of animal spirits in Japan, and comparing it to its neighbors sharpens the picture.
The most natural comparison is the fox spirit. Like the kitsune, the nekomata is a shape-shifting animal that gains power and extra tails with age. But where the fox is often tied to the divine, to rice and the shrine, the nekomata is more domestic and more sinister, a spirit of the home turned strange. Both grow more tails as they grow in power, a lovely shared logic in Japanese folklore.
It is worth noting how different this dread feels from Japan’s affection for cats today, from the beckoning maneki-neko figurine to the country’s famous cat cafes and cat islands. The nekomata is the shadow side of that love, the reminder that the small warm creature curled beside us is, in the end, still a little wild.
In Modern Pop Culture
Cats and the supernatural are a beloved pairing in Japanese media, and the nekomata thrives there.
You will find two-tailed cat spirits throughout anime, manga, and video games, sometimes as fearsome monsters, more often as charming or mischievous companions. Long-running monster-collecting franchises regularly include a forked-tailed cat among their creatures. Folklore-driven series that catalog yokai almost always give the nekomata a place, usually leaning into its fire powers or its uncanny walk.
Modern versions tend to soften the corpse-puppet horror and play up the cute, clever, or magical side. Still, the essential image survives: an ordinary cat that turns out to be far more than it seemed, its doubled tail flicking with secret knowledge.
How to Recognize a Nekomata
If you are trying to spot a nekomata in a story or an old print, watch for a short checklist.
The forked or doubled tail, first and always. A cat of unusual age or unusual size. Standing or dancing on its hind legs. Speaking with a human voice. A wrapped cloth on its head, a common image in classic art of dancing cat spirits. And an association with flickering, unexplained fire.
Unlike the mountain-dwelling tengu or the bone giant gashadokuro built from the unmourned dead, the nekomata’s true horror is its intimacy. It is not a stranger from the wilderness. It is the familiar creature at your feet, revealed at last to have a will and a memory all its own.
FAQ
What is the difference between a nekomata and a bakeneko?
Both are supernatural cats, but the bakeneko is the broader, more general category of a cat that has gained magical powers, while the nekomata is usually the more advanced and dangerous form. The nekomata’s defining feature is its forked, split tail, and its powers tend to be darker, including cursing and controlling the dead. In short, a bakeneko is a changed cat, and a nekomata is a changed cat that has become truly menacing.
How does a cat become a nekomata?
In folklore a house cat becomes a nekomata by living to a great age or growing to an unusual size, at which point its tail splits in two and it gains supernatural powers. This belief was strong enough that people sometimes avoided keeping cats too long, or bobbed their tails young so they could never fork. There was also a wilder mountain nekomata thought to be a monstrous beast rather than a former pet.
What powers does a nekomata have?
A nekomata can speak, walk on its hind legs, and shapeshift, often into the form of an old woman. It is linked to mysterious fires and to laying curses on those who wronged it. Its most feared power is control over the dead, making corpses rise and move like puppets.
Is the nekomata related to the kitsune?
They are cousins in spirit rather than the same creature. Both the nekomata and the kitsune are shape-shifting animal yokai that gain power and additional tails as they age. The key difference is tone: the fox is often tied to the divine and to the deity Inari, while the nekomata is a more domestic and sinister spirit born from an ordinary household cat.
Are nekomata evil?
Not purely, though they lean dangerous. In many tales the nekomata turns on households that mistreated it, punishing cruelty, which frames it as a spirit of consequence rather than random malice. Its powers over curses and corpses are genuinely frightening, but modern pop culture often reimagines the nekomata as playful, clever, or even friendly.