to be mountain beasts, there is a theory that "mata" () refers to monkeys, since nekomata can come and go freely among the mountain trees. There is also a theory that the term derives from the way in which cats that grow old shed the skin off their backs and hang downwards, making it appear that they have two tails. In Japan cats are often associated with death, and this particular spirit is often blamed. Far darker and more malevolent than most bakeneko, the nekomata is said to have powers of necromancy, and upon raising the dead, will control them with ritualistic dances, gesturing with paw and tail. These yōkai are associated with strange fires and other inexplicable occurrences. The older and more abused a cat is prior to its transformation, the more power the nekomata is said to have. To gain revenge against those who wronged it, the spirit may haunt humans with visitations from their deceased relatives. Some tales state that these demons, like bakeneko, assume human appearances, usually appearing as older women, behaving badly in public, and bringing gloom and malevolence wherever they travel. Due to these beliefs, sometimes kittens' tails were cut off based on the assumption that if the tails could not fork, the cats could not become nekomata. From this discernment and strange characteristics, nekomata have been considered devilish from time immemorial. Due to fears and folk beliefs such as the dead resurrecting at a funeral, or that seven generations would be cursed as a result of killing a cat, it is thought that the legend of the nekomata was born. Also, in folk beliefs cats and the dead are related. As carnivores, cats have a keen sense of detecting the smell of rot, so it was believed that they had a habit of approaching corpses; with this folk belief sometimes the kasha, a yōkai that steals corpses are seen to be the same as the nekomata. Also in Japan there are cat yōkai called bakeneko; and since nekomata are the yōkai of transformed cats, sometimes nekomata are confused with bakeneko. Yōkai depictions In the Edo period many books illustrating and describing yōkai were published (yōkai emaki), with nekomata frequently depicted. The Hyakkai Zukan published in 1737 (Gembun 2) includes an illustration of a nekomata assuming the appearance of a woman playing a shamisen. (See the first image on this page.) Since Edo-period shamisen