Bakeneko

The beginning of the Edo period is the first known appearance of bakeneko, in the well-known bakeneko story “The disturbance of the bakeneko of Nabeshima”. This legend was based on an actual event. The setting for the story “The disturbance of the bakeneko of Nabeshima” is the death of the Ryuzoji clan, suggesting it came to present form during the Edo period because the origins of the legend match the events that happened. The story occurs during Nabeshima Mitsushige reign as the daimyo (Foster 214). The story involves a bakeneko acting in revenge for the Ryuzoji Clan (All of them) who committed suicide after Ryuzoji (Who are these people) displeased Mitsushige and ordered to commit suicide. The story recounts that bakenekos are born by when a cat licks up the blood of a murdered person and takes on the persons hatred. This caused the cat to seek revenge on the ones who are responsible for the death (Crandol 2). Another well-known bakeneko legend is the illustration “School for Spooks” by a 19^th century artist Kawanabe Kyosaia (Roberts 11). In the illustration a demon queller is teaching demons how to read Japanese. Another story involves a bakeneko shapeshifting into a geisha to drink a prince’s blood. The story used liminal space because the bakeneko would do something at midnight for example, it killed and took the shape of a geisha at midnight. The bakeneko was defeated in this story by a soldier who was very devoted to Buddhism. The bakeneko in this story is similar to kitsune in that they both shapeshift into beautiful women; the difference is however that the bakeneko typically eats the person they transform into becoming a more sinister creature in comparison. Bakenekos are able to adapt to their surroundings similarly to a regular cat which gave the illusion of mystery about cats which caused them to be under scrutiny in feudal Japan.

Many bakeneko legends became extremely popular through kabuki and kyogen plays. Wood block print illustrations also became popular over time. This was done by doing a hybrid of the kabuki stage traditions with modern cinematic tropes. This resulted in kaiki films. These bakeneko films can also represent the transition Japan was going through of the introduction of foreign culture (Wyatt 74). The bakeneko films show this by being one of the first kaiki films. Well into the Meiji era, many popular versions of the legends were made into movies such as “The Haunted Castle” (Foster 216). The oldest, and most well-known bakeneko film was “The Cat of Arima” (Crandol 4). Bakeneko films were very popular in the horror genre as it often took a similar style and motif of Hollywood horror films while maintaining the native visual representation for the monsters from Japanese art and theatre which predates the cinema (Crandol Abstract). Another example of this are foreign stories like Edgar Allan Poe’s “Black Cat” or the “Grimms’ Fairy Tales were re-imangined as a bakeneko. In the re-imagined “Black Cat” after the narrator killed his wife, the newly adopted cat became a bakeneko who sought revenge by becoming his wife until he received retributuion for his actions. (Wyatt 76) In Japanese horror the monsters that are typically female, during the time of cinema allowed women like Suzuki Sumiko to become major horror actors for their portrayals of the monsters (Crandol 1). She was most well-known for her bakeneko performances having elements of contemporary sexuality which was groundbreaking for its time and later ceased in production due to the government’s wish to censor “frivolous” entertainment (Crandol 5). Sumiko’s performances were groundbreaking because they represent the changing of representations of women in Japanese film and entertainment industry (Miyao Introduction). In cinema, bakenekos were portrayed by actors wearing full body plush costumes with the human female versions typically portrayed by a man continuing the kabuki tradition. These stories follow a theme for a beauty to beast transformation that occurs throughout the film. This theme was popular during the post-war times of the Meiji period. This follows the same theme as Oiwa in the film Kaidan where she goes from a beautiful woman to a vengeful and ugly ghost. (Fix transition) Bakenekos’ follow this tradition in one of two ways: Transforming from a beautiful murdered woman to a grotesque and monstrous vengeful creature or, transforming from a beautiful woman murdered by the bakeneko to the same woman until discovered as the grotesque and monstrous creature and slain. This is a very common and popular trope for Japanese horror stories.

Movie Poster for Bakeneko film