InNaruto,long before the foundation of the hidden villages, the Sage of Six Paths, Hagoromo Outsutsuki, saved the world by sealing the Ten-Tailed Beast into his body. Sometime later, he created the tailed-beasts, which were born of the chakra of the Ten-Tails. Hagoromo split said chakra into nine parts and used the Creation Of All Things technique, which is the creation of form out of nothingness and breathing life into form, to forge it into nine living beings, and gave each of them a name.
Sometime after their creation, Hagoromo explained to theTailed-Beaststhat they shared a connection despite having been separated. Before Hagoromo died, he sent Matatabi, the Two-Tails, to live in a temple built with the purpose of protecting it in a canebrake region. As time went by, people came to believe that, just like Shukaku, Matatabi was once a human being that turned into a living ghost.
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The Symbolism Of Cats In Japan
Cats are frequently legend material since they embodymysticism. It is no wonder that cats have been culturally significant for many nations, and Japan is no different. Their relationship with and influence on humans is as old as civilization itself and can be traced back over 9,500 years.
In Japan, cats are revered for giving good luck and other positive results, with the popular Japanese cat figurine Maneki-Neko (招き猫), which means “beckoning cat”, being typically believed to bring such blessings. The Maneki-Neko figurine is often that of a cat with its paw in an upright position, as though beckoning.
According to a Japanese legend, a lord was looking for shelter under a tree during a storm whenhe saw a cat wavingits paw at him. Intrigued by this gesture, the man walked toward the animal when, all of a sudden, a lightning bolt struck the exact place where he was standing before. The lord attributed his good fortune to the cat’s actions. Therefore, the cat’s beckoning hand became a symbol of good luck.
Matatabi And The Nekomata In The Narutoverse
Matatabi, in the world ofNaruto, also known as the Two-Tails (ニ尾),Nibi, is one of the nine-tailed beasts, sealed within Yugito Nii of Kumogakure, when he was two years old. Matatabi (又旅) means “travel again”, and is named after the silver vine, a plant that is similar to a hardy kiwi vine, which is used as a healing herb for cats, the effects of which on cats are Much like that of the catnip. It is also probably an adaptation of nekomata (猫又), which means “forked cat”. Matatabi is made of chakra merged with blue flames, which confer it the shape of a blue flaming cat. Since it is basically made of fire, Matatabi burns everything it touches. It is known as the embodiment of vengeance, due to its immense power.
Matatabi is one of the nine-tailed beasts that Hagoromo created from the chakra of his mother, Kaguya Outsutsuki. Just like the other tailed beasts, Matatabi used to freely roam the world until it was captured by Hashirama Senju, who, together with Hyuuki, sold it to Kumogakure, in an attempt to keep the balance of power between the five great nations. Eventually, Matatabi was sealed inside Yugito Nii and once againcaptured by the Akatsuki, who used it as a weapon of mass destruction to try and capture Naruto and Killer B during the Fourth Shinobi World War.
The Nekomata In The Japanese Folklore And Ancient Legends
The nekomata is a kind of cat youkai told about in folklore as well as classical Kaidan, essays, etc. There are two very different types of nekomata, the beast that lives in the mountains, and the ones raised domestically, which grow old and transform. It is often confused with the bakeneko. The bakeneko (化け猫), which means “monster cat”, is also a popular cat youkai in Japanese folklore, known forits shapeshifting abilitiesand capability of walking and speaking like humans. The belief was that, when a bakeneko reaches a certain age, its tail splits into two, and the cat turns evil and becomes a nekomata. Matatabi is also inspired by the kasha, a youkai frequently depicted as a giant flaming cat. It was also said that these youkai have the powers of necromancy, and they had been associated with strange fires and other unexplainable occurrences.
In appearance, Matatabi has two tails, like the bakeneko and the nekomata, and it is entirely engulfed in flames, like a kasha, even though its flames are cobalt blue and black. It also has heterochromatic eyes, with its right eye being yellow, and the left one, green. When Tobi forced it to transform, Matatabi’s size increased as compared to when Yugito unleashed it, and, during the final days of Hagoromoro’s life, Matatabi was a young flaming kitten, much smaller than it is nowadays, but still muchbigger than the Sage.
The first record of the nekomata is dated as of 1233. In China, there are stories told about them that are even older than in Japan from the Sui dynasty, but in Japan, in the early Kamakura period, there is a statement that a nekomata (猫胯) ate and killed several people in one night, marking the first appearance of the nekomata in literature, and the nekomata was talked about as a beast in the mountains.In the Edo periodand afterward, it has become a general belief that domestically-raised cats would turn into nekomata as they grow old, and the nekomata of the mountains have come to be interpreted as cats that have run away and came to live in the mountains. Because of that, a folk belief emerged in each area of Japan that cats are not to be raised for many months and years.
The nekomata, just like the kitsune, are represented in other anime as well. InInuYasha, the demon slayer Sango has a pet cat, Kirara, who is a nekomata, depicted as having two tails and that transforms from a kitten into a big cat. InBlue Exorcist,Kuro, (クロ) is a Cat Sídhe, and Rin Okumura’s familiar, who used to be Shiro Fujimoto’s familiar, until he died at the hands of Satan. Kuro can change from a small cat into a nekomata at any time.
