Nekomata
猫また · The cat figure in Sekien’s Gazu hyakki yagyō
A cat yōkai pictured on its hind legs in Sekien’s illustrated collection. This record follows the named plate, rather than combining the many stories attached to supernatural cats.
Quick answer
Nekomata is a named cat yōkai in Toriyama Sekien’s Gazu hyakki yagyō (1776). Its upright pose gives the cat a human-like bearing. The plate supplies a depiction, not an explanatory tale about how a cat becomes this being.[1, In, 猫また] [3]
Quick facts
| Tradition | Edo-period Japanese yōkai print culture |
|---|---|
| Record type | Named yōkai subject in a historical illustrated collection |
| Source realm | Japanese folklore imagery; an unnamed domestic setting |
| Primary witness | Sekien, Gazu hyakki yagyō, In (陰) volume, 1776 |
| Written heading | 猫また |
| Defining image | A cat upright on its hind legs |
| Narrative status | Labelled illustration without an accompanying explanatory story |
What the source presents
The Kawasaki City Museum’s indexed copy places Nekomata in the In (陰) volume. Viewer image 8 contains the spread catalogued as 犬神 白児・猫また: Inugami and Shirachigo on one side, Nekomata on the other. Sharing a spread does not establish a relationship between these subjects.[1, image 8]
The Nekomata composition places cats beside a house, with the prominent figure raised onto its hind legs. Sekien’s heading identifies the subject, but supplies no narrated encounter, named owner, or explanation of the scene’s outcome.[1, 猫また] [3]
Description and interpretive limits
The reproduction shows a cat with two tail branches and a cloth over its head, standing upright near other cats. The pose can suggest human imitation or dancing; that is a reading of a still image, not an action explained by accompanying prose.[3, plate]
The picture does not set out stages by which a tail divides, or establish that the other cats are younger versions of the upright figure. It gives no stated dimensions, lifespan, supernatural powers, or vulnerabilities. Its domestic scenery locates this composition without defining a habitat for every Nekomata tradition.
Source realm: Japanese yōkai imagery
This record belongs to Folklore places, within the Japanese traditions shelf. The scene has no named town, province, or supernatural kingdom. Edo is the edition’s publication place, not a locality named in the plate.[2]
For another subject in the same collection, see Jorōgumo, whose plate opens the separate Yō (陽) volume.
Primary work, edition and image
- 1Toriyama Sekien, Gazu hyakki yagyō (画図百鬼夜行), In (陰) volume
Japanese woodblock edition, An’ei 5 (1776). Kawasaki City Museum, “画図百鬼夜行 前編（陰）,” digital viewer image 8, indexed “犬神 白児・猫また.” The museum catalogue establishes the edition and plate location; the separately hosted reproduction in item 3 supplies the illustration used here. English descriptions are editorial paraphrases, not quotations from a modern translation. The viewer number identifies a digital spread, not a printed page number.
Museum edition and plate index (select image 8) ↗ - 2Tokyo University of the Arts Library, Gazu hyakki yagyō, catalogue record 11348
Edition check: Toriyama Sekien; Edo, 出雲寺和泉掾 and 遠州屋弥七; 1776 (An’ei 5); three volumes; shelfmark 貴重書/11/43. Publisher names follow the library catalogue. This is a separate institutional copy.
Library edition record ↗ - 3Toriyama Sekien, Nekomata plate, Wikimedia Commons reproduction
“SekienNekomata.jpg,” 370 × 493 pixels; current file is a lossless crop uploaded 15 March 2010. Commons identifies Sekien and the 猫また subject from Gazu hyakki yagyō and marks the image public domain. It credits an older linet.gr.jp web reproduction without identifying the physical impression. This eighteenth-century artwork is reproduced on that public-domain basis, not as a scan attributed to either institution above. Modern explanatory captions on the upload page are not treated as Sekien’s text.
Direct provenance and rights record ↗ · Public Domain Mark ↗
