To everyone who was expecting this post earlier in the month, I can only apologise and throw my hands in the air claiming 'technical difficulties'. As some of you may know, the last 2 1/2 months of my life have been a battle to get our ISP to even recognise our existence, so I have had to make regular trips to our local library to use the internet. The day before this post was due I came down to the library to post it, and all I got was a message that Devon County Council had blocked access to Blogger. Either way, everything's sorted and we should be enjoying broadband from the comfort of our own home by the end of the week. At last.
Monster Fest is hosted by Sommer Leigh on her Tell Great Stories blog. The idea of the fest is to gather together, across the participating blogs, a collection of knowledge about various monsters. Me being me, am bringing you a slightly unusual choice and, me also being me, something of the feline persuasion.
The Bakeneko (Monster Cat)
The Bakeneko is a creature from Japanese folklore: a cat who has developed supernatural abilities. Any ordinary cat can become a Bakeneko by one of three ways:
- By living to over 100 years old
- By growing to be one kan (3.75 kg or 8.25 lbs) in weight
- By being allowed to keep its long tail. In this case, its tail splits into two and it becomes a Nekomata (Forked Cat). It is thought that this belief may have brought about the breeding of the Japanese Bobtail.
Bakeneko will terrorise and haunt the house they live in, able to create ghostly fireballs, menace sleepers, walk on its hind legs, take on human form, or even devour its own mistress in order to shapeshift and take her place. It also poses a danger if allowed into a room with a fresh corpse as it is believed to be capable of reanimating a body by jumping over it.
But not all Bakeneko are bad; in many stories they are good-hearted and faithful to their owners; with some stories attaching benevolent Bakeneko to the legend of the famous Maneki Neko (Beckoning Cat).
Hmm, a tail-splitting cat. Creepy! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing! Interesting that the Japanese bred the bob-tailed cat because of this! The Chinese also have a similar belief of not allowing a cat near a dead body, as it is believed the cat will reanimate the corpse if it ever jumped over it.
ReplyDeleteJ.C.
Join me in the Trick or Treat Spooktacular! Could you help make the Grand Prize a brand new Kindle Touch?