Magical cats of Japan

zocalopublicsquare.org

74 pointsubac4 comments

Japanese houses were mostly lit by fish oil lamps. Cats love to lap the oil, and at night, in the glowing lamplight, they cast huge shadows on the walls, seemingly morphing into massive creatures standing on their hind legs as they stretched.

I like how the article takes a stab at explaining the supernatural perceptions in reasonable, logical terms. They aren't framed as just stupid superstitions.

I am having a hard time picturing a cat licking its paws as scarry. Well, not to a human anyway.

Paws with fish on them. Yum yum

Pretend it's a mysterious foreign creature with a social aura of mystique about it in your culture. It's 3am and you are stumbling home, having had too much sake, and you see this enormous shadow on the wall all out of proportion to anything you would expect to see from something the size of a house cat.

You can't readily identify it from the intimidating shadow that seems like a fierce creature that could maul you to death and it seems to be drinking from a bowl of fire...

(Waits for all the Japanese historians to leap at the chance to correct my inaccurate vision of this scene.)

This article was captivating. Not the normal HN experience but I'm so glad it was posted here.

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