Hello again! This week we’re going to take a look at a creature from Japan. That creature is a cute little kitty!

That likes to eat people.

Let us begin with the name of said creature. “Bakeneko” translates to either “changing cat” or “ghost cat,” and both are fairly descriptive. This yōkai, as you can imagine, takes the form of a cat. As intimated above, these are not particularly benevolent creatures.

So where do bakeneko come from, you may ask? Well, they start their lives as regular house cats, but how they come about changes depending on location. In some places, bakeneko are cats that have reached a certain age, that age being either seven, twelve, or thirteen, again depending on where you’re talking about. In other places they come about by the cat eating lantern oil, which was made with fish oil back in the day. It’s also believed that cats with long tails are also more likely to become bakenko, which lead to some people chopping off a portion of the tail and is believed to have led to the Japanese bobtail becoming a breed.

As for what they do, it’s mostly crimes. Bakeneko, like a lot of yōkai, are shapeshifters. They can also eat basically anything, which often leads to them eating their owners and taking their place. They can also summon fireballs, which they use to commit arson. They usually also learn human speech, which basically just makes me think of this:

Even if they don’t kill their owners, they tend to curse them or cause other misfortunes. Oh, they also raise the bodies of the dead to do their bidding, so we can also add necromancy to the mix.

So that is the bakeneko in a nutshell. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to keep an eye on my 14-year-old, long tailed cat that doesn’t eat lantern oil, but does like to eat plastic.

I’m just kidding; he’s actually a sweetheart.