Yokai, The Gotoku neko

 

Cats are often associated with superstitions especially black cats (thought to bring bad luck)  though they are just as sweet as any other cat.

Another superstition about cats is they cause fire .

For example, if you let a cat sleep near the fireplace, your house will burn down. An old belief is that the sparks from the fireplace would light the cat’s tail, and then the flaming cat would run around the house igniting everything it touched. Although Sekien does not mention it, the flames on gotoku neko’s tails might be a reference to this superstition.

This fire cat is a type of nekomata A large  yōkai cat or (monster cat) with two tails. They wear an upside-down iron  trivet on their heads like a hat and the tips of their twin tails burn like firey  torches.

This fiery feline enjoys it's time around the  fireplaces. It uses bamboo pipes to blow air on the fire and stoke the flames they also enjoy warming themselves by the  fireplace like any normal cats would.

The first literary reference to the Gotoku neko was by  Toriyama Sekien in his book Hyakki tsurezure bukuro (“An Idle Bag of One Hundred Vessels”). Its name comes from the gotoku–or trivet–that this yōkai wears like a hat. A gotoku is an iron ring with three or four legs used to hold a tea kettle or pot in a fireplace. It heats vessels while keeping them out of the ashes. Gotoku have occult connections of their own: a famous curse in Japan is known as the shrine visit at the hour of the ox , it requires wearing a gotoku upside-down on your head.

Gotoku also refers to the five virtues of Confucianism: benevolence, honesty, knowledge, integrity, and propriety. It is somewhat odd for a yōkai to be associated with virtues, but Sekien makes a joke of it by referring to a story from Tsurezure gusa (“Essays in Idleness”). 

There was once a nobleman named Shinano no Zenji Yukinaga, who was set to perform shichitoku no mai (“the dance of seven virtues”). Though, as he danced before the court, he forgot two of the virtues. As a result, he jokingly became known around the court for his dance of five virtues (gotoku). Sekien connects this wordplay to the yōkai by explaining that gotoku neko are often forgetful.

Next time you see a kitty all warm and cozy by the fireplace it may more then it seems.. 

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