08/03/2024
>>> Journée Internationale de lutte pour les Droits des femmes
Julian Finoglio, Contemporary
Nekomata (猫又) with Futakuchi-onna
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/q2Pdy
In Japanese (and some Chinese) folklore a Nekomata is a cat yokai with two tails. "In the Edo period, many in style of illustrated reference books, yōkai emaki, have been made, and nekomata are frequently the subject of these yōkai depictions. In the Hyakkai Zukan published in 1737 there was a depiction of a nekomata taking on the appearance of a human female playing a shamisen, but since shamisen in the Edo period were frequently made by using the skins of cats, the nekomata played the shamisen and sang a sad song about its own species, and has been interpreted as a kind of irony etc. Concerning the fact that they wear geisha clothing, there is the viewpoint they are related due to the fact that geisha were once called "cats (neko)."
Also, in the "Gazu Hyakki Yagyō" published in 1776 with a depiction of a cat on the left with its head coming out of a shōji, a cat on the right with a handkerchief on its head and its forepaw on the veranda, and a cat in the middle also wearing a handkerchief and standing on two legs, and thus as a cat that has not had enough experience and thus as difficulty standing on two legs, a cat that has grown older and has become able to stand on two legs, it can be seen to be depicting the process by which a normal cat grows older and transforms into a nekomata. Also, in the Bigelow collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (the ukiyo-e collection), in the "Hyakki Yagyō Emaki", since pretty much the same composition of nekomata has been depicted, some have pointed out a relation between them.[
This cat yokai has complex folk history that can be touched on in this Wikipedia link- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nekomata
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In Japanese folk tales Futakuchi-onna is a yokai or monster with a second mouth hidden at the back of her head.
http://yokai.com/futakuchionna/.
