They make their homes on mountaintops, in rivers and oceans, on city streets and on every megabuilding floor with the number 4 in it, even in your washing machine or infovisor. Some appear in concrete places, while others simply haunt a specific person. They're there when you hear a strange noise in the middle of the desert. They're there when you feel like someone's watching you, although there's not a soul in sight. They're there when you glimpse something out of the corner of your eye, something nobody else seems to notice, but you were just at the ripperdoc's for your checkup!
The yōkai first appear in Japanese literature in the year 797. These mysterious beings, though closely linked to the invisible realm of the dead, have been alive in the Japanese consciousness from the very birth of animism. It's not that the Japanese believe in the yōkai. They simply know the yōkai exist.
[...] In addition to phantoms, ogres and other mysterious phenomena, the yōkai also include a group of shape-shifting demons called obake or bakemono. The bakemono are said to sometimes take the form of a faceless person, a one-eyed scarecrow or an animal.
[...]It's said that when a cat reaches a certain age, it becomes a bakeneko. These yōkai are able to walk on their two hind legs, speak and dance, assume human form or even devour their owners and take their place. The bakeneko sometimes visit people in their sleep, or even wake the dead – all they have to do is hop over a corpse to bring it suddenly back to life.
However, the demons are capable of much, much more. One should exercise extreme caution around a double tailed cat. This is a nekomata, a yōkai with shamanic and necromantic capabilities, able to place curses on people and control the dead. In its human form, a nekomata resembles an old woman, often one addicted to some substance or other and with an eerie, disturbing air about her.
However, let me assure American readers of this book; today, the most likely place you'll find a bakeneko is in the form of lucky Maneki-neko figurines. After all, real cats are an even rarer sight these days than your average yōkai.
