Bakeneko

Quick facts

What the source says

A stolen identity

Mitford introduces the story as a tradition of the Nabéshima family. The cat had belonged to one of the prince’s retainers. After following the prince and O Toyo from the garden, it kills her in her room, buries her beneath the verandah, and assumes her form. The prince grows weak and suffers dreadful dreams; medicine fails to restore him.^{[1, p. 200]}

The interrupted visits

A hundred guards repeatedly fall asleep before the false O Toyo arrives. Through the priest Ruiten of Miyô In, the soldier Itô Sôda gains permission to join the watch. He keeps himself awake through a painful self-inflicted wound. Finding him alert, the impostor leaves without tormenting the prince. When Sôda repeats the watch, the prince improves; after the visits cease, the guards’ strange drowsiness also stops.^{[1, pp. 200–205]}

Exposure and escape

Sôda confronts the false O Toyo in her room. She fights him with a halberd, then changes into a cat and springs onto the roof. The men waiting outside shoot and miss. The cat reaches the mountains and troubles the surrounding people until a hunt ordered by the prince kills it. The prince recovers and Sôda receives rewards.^{[1, pp. 205–206]}

Description and capacities

The narrative describes a large cat and explicitly stages changes between cat and human form. As the false O Toyo, it speaks and handles a weapon. Mitford describes its purpose as draining the prince’s life’s blood, but the nightly scenes show harassment and attempted spells rather than a described act of biting the prince. “Vampire” is his English title-word; the account does not identify the cat as a resurrected corpse.^{[1, pp. 200, 204–206]}

The prefatory paragraph on p. 199 and note 74 explicitly call the Nabéshima cat two-tailed. That detail belongs to this witness even though the tale’s main action does not dwell on its tails. The text supplies neither the term Bakeneko nor Nekomata here, so it cannot establish a distinction between those labels. It gives no age threshold for transformation, measurements, or rule that all supernatural cats share these capacities.^{[1, p. 199 and note 74]}

Source realm: the Prince of Hizen’s household

The story takes place in a Japanese lord’s garden, palace rooms, and the mountains to which the cat escapes. Hizen and the Nabéshima family identify the tale’s association; the text does not name the palace’s town or the mountains. This is a Folklore places record within Japanese traditions, with its geography limited to the collected account.^{[1, pp. 200–206 and note 75]}

Themes in this telling

The story contrasts deceptive intimacy with a retainer’s vigilance. Sôda’s low rank initially obstructs his access to the prince; his service earns recognition and reward. These themes follow the narrative’s actions and dialogue. They do not establish a universal symbolism for cats in Japanese tradition.^{[1, pp. 202–206]}