Note: This is the same file I submitted for the draft.

Eva Vega

RELI 73H

Dr. Ambros

Final Paper

11/18/22

“Neko no Sōshi:” Folkloric Animals as a Reflection of Real-Life Human-Animal Interactions

During the Muromachi period and the beginning of the Edo period in Japan, the type of

narrative literature known as otogizōshi emerged. Of largely unknown authorship beyond the

fact that they were written not only by aristocrats but also by monks and samurai, these stories

typically convey a moral message through techniques such as the use of animals to represent

specific traits. On a wider scale, otogizōshi that use anthropomorphic animals to make a

statement about how humans should act can also be examined with the intent of determining how

contemporary Japanese society viewed animals and the relationship between animals and

humans. One otogizōshi that depicts not only how animals were perceived at the time of its

writing but also how humans were supposed to treat them is “Neko no Sōshi,” or “The Tale of

the Cat.” Examining this story in comparison to other otogizōshi and the perspectives of literary

scholars reveals that this tale, like others of its genre, displays the division in social status not

only between humans and other animals but between species of those animals, thus making a

statement about the overall perception of different animals in Japan at the time.
 “Neko no Sōshi” came about as the result of a 1602 edict ordering all cats in Kyoto to be

released, likely due to an increase in the size of the rat population (Skord 33). It narrates the

experiences of a priest as he is visited in his dreams by a mouse that confesses its sins and tells of

its kind’s suffering due to the newly-unleashed cats, then by a cat that insults the mouse and

expresses its gratitude for being allowed to roam free (Skord 36-39). In the end, after attempting

to mediate by allowing the mouse to confess and (unsuccessfully) trying to convince the cat to

eat something else, the priest simply tells his dreams to a friend who finds them funny, returning

to his normal life as the mice are forced to flee the city (Skord 36-37, 39-40, 42). The tale even

goes so far as to claim that, after the edict and the “public order” it demonstrates, everyone will

be happy forever and their “hearts [will know] naught but gladness” (Skord 42).

In this otogizōshi, both the cat and the mouse are portrayed with anthropomorphic

characteristics that represent the perceived core values of their species. For instance, the penitent

mouse speaks very tearfully and timidly while bemoaning the lack of discernment of its younger

counterparts, while the cat proudly traces its tiger lineage and lashes out at the mouse’s insolence

with insults and claims of blasphemy. This dichotomy in the animals’ characteristics represents

the way humans traditionally perceive them: mice, which are small and unassuming, tend to be

more fearful, while cats are aggressive and typically strike first. However, the portrayals of these

two animals in “Neko no Sōshi” have meaning beyond illustrating the typical predator-prey

relationship. Although the cat’s manner of speaking could imply that it is arrogant and seeks only

to justify the source of its meals, the priest’s respect for it (along with its ancestry, as it claims to

come from the great tigers of India) indicates that it is actually considered a relatively elevated

species worthy of human attention. On the other hand, the priest’s shock at the mouse’s ability to

converse so eloquently implies that, as opposed to the cat, he viewed this species as inferior and
less capable of the sophistication that he saw as normal for the cat. This divide between how the

cat and the mouse are depicted in the story represents the contemporary Japanese view of these

animals in terms of their respective levels of advancement, establishing cats as clearly superior to

mice, while also reinforcing their separation from humans through the priests’ friends’

amusement at the priests’ dream-interactions with the animals.

The portrayal of the cat and the mouse in “Neko no Sōshi” is somewhat reminiscent of

that in “Nezumi no Sōshi,” which narrates the tale of a mouse’s journey to become a monk after

being abandoned by his human wife. At the end of “Nezumi no Sōshi,” the mouse monk

encounters a cat monk who attempts to befriend the mouse, who is reluctant to be so close to a

cat: “I cannot forget / the way you looked / in the past. / I am still frightened, oh cat priest!”

(Kimbrough and Shirane 293). In both this story and “Neko no Sōshi,” the mouse is depicted as

desperate for its goal (a wife and safety, respectively) and fearful of not receiving its desires. On

the other hand, the cat in “Nezumi no Sōshi” is much friendlier and more accepting of the

mouse’s role in society than the cat in “Neko no Sōshi,” perhaps because both animals in

“Nezumi no Sōshi” are monks (which would thus emphasize the idea presented in both stories

that all beings can achieve a peaceful, enlightened existence by following the teachings of the

Buddha). What both tales’ depictions of these animals have in common is the interspecies

division that emphasizes the contemporary Japanese views of them. The mice in both tales were

shy and in desperate need, suggesting that they were perceived as inferior to cats, which in both

tales were more self-assured and did not appear to have any direct need for anything. Thus, both

otogizōshi imply not only that nonhuman animals occupied a lesser level in the social hierarchy

of Japan than humans but also that each species was seen as bearing distinctive traits that gave it

its own place within the realm of animals as a whole.

 The difference in the level of sophistication between the cat and the mouse in “Neko no

Sōshi” also reflects Barbara Ambros’ claim in her article “Vengeful Spirits or Loving Spiritual

Companions? Changing Views of Animal Spirits in Contemporary Japan” that certain animals

are of a higher spiritual status than others. She argues that, according to the clairvoyant Izumo

Sayoko, “animals have a lower spiritual status than humans, but the closer they are to humans,

the higher their status” (Ambros 42-43). This would mean that cats, which were considered

typical pet animals and therefore interacted somewhat regularly with humans, would have been

viewed as more spiritually advanced than mice, which in an agricultural society such as 15th-

century Japan would have been seen primarily as pests. This higher status of cats is reflected

throughout “Neko no Sōshi” in the priest’s lack of surprise at the cat’s ability to verbally

communicate with him (whereas he is shaken by the possibility that the mouse can do the same)

and suggests anthropocentrism within the story’s meaning and within contemporary Japan as a

whole. The fact that cats and other animals that had closer relationships with humans were seen

as existing on a higher spiritual level than the rest of the animal species suggests that Japanese

Buddhist beliefs emphasized humanity and humanity’s journey to enlightenment (as opposed to

animals’ paths to enlightenment, which by default would have been longer and more difficult

because animals were automatically lesser beings than humans). Therefore, although “Neko no

Sōshi” uses its depiction of animals to emphasize the distinction in status between certain species

of animals and between animals and humans, its portrayals of the cat and the mouse also

highlight the anthropocentrism present in Japanese Buddhist beliefs at the time.

Another aspect of real life human-animal relationships reflected in “Neko no Sōshi” is

the dependence between them, specifically between humans and cats in this case. According to

Lynne Sullivan McNeill, “cats have had a mutually beneficial, working relationship with humans
for roughly 3500 years,” resulting in an innate bond between the species (McNeill 17). This bond

is present in “Neko no Sōshi” through the humans’ need for cats: the entire basis of the tale is

that pet cats have been released because humans need help controlling the rat population.

Therefore, despite the obvious separation between humans and animals that exists within

Japanese Buddhism and that was reflected within “Neko no Sōshi,” the tale also illustrates the

fact that the line between humans and other animals was sometimes blurred in Japanese society.

Where the mice in the otogizōshi were seen as pests and therefore far below humans in the

hierarchy of living beings, the cats could be useful to humans by driving out the mice and thus

were viewed as more sophisticated simply because they became tools that humans could make

use of as needed. By portraying the dynamic between humans and animals not only in terms of

the distance between them but also the interactions between them, “Neko no Sōshi” not only

emphasizes the fact that humans are the superior species on the planet but also reflects the real-

world dynamic between humans and animals in Japan at the time.

Otogizōshi such as “Neko no Sōshi” were created with the primary purpose of conveying

some moral message, typically through the portrayal of animals as representative of specific

human traits. In this specific story, the message that every animal has its place within the

hierarchy of living beings is depicted through the priest’s shock at the mouse’s eloquence when

communicating with him (and its ability to even converse with humans at all) and his casual

acceptance of the cat’s similarly elevated speech. However, beyond this explicit meaning, “Neko

no Sōshi” can also be examined as a reflection of contemporary Japanese society and Japanese

Buddhist beliefs. The story is explicitly based on a real-life edict that allowed cats to be freed so

they could become exterminators; therefore, the priest’s lack of surprise at the cat’s

sophistication could be seen as mirroring the real-world closeness between humans and cats at
the time, as humans were freeing cats in exchange for a benefit in the form of less rats. Thus, not

only does the tale emphasize the fact that every being has its own level in the hierarchy of

society by giving the mouse and the cat distinct characteristics, but it also does so by reflecting

the relationship that Japanese people had with their cats during the time period when the story

emerged. Additionally, this otogizōshi is an example of the anthropocentrism present within

Japanese Buddhism. Although the main, arguably more important events within the tale happen

to the mouse and the cat, the narrative still focuses on the thoughts and actions of the human

priest, and he is the one who is implicitly assigned the role of mediator between the animals, thus

elevating him in comparison to them by suggesting that he is sophisticated enough to resolve this

dispute (while neither of the animals is able to). Therefore, “Neko no Sōshi” emphasizes the

social standings of humans and other animals in Japanese society through its portrayal of each

character while also providing historical information about human-animal relationships in

Buddhist Japan and highlighting the human-centered nature of the religion.

Works Cited

Ambros, Barbara. “Vengeful Spirits or Loving Spiritual Companions? Changing Views of

Animal

Spirits in Contemporary Japan.” Asian Ethnology, vol. 69, no. 1, 2010, pp. 35-

67. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27821481. A journal article discussing the shift in

Japanese views of the spirits of their pets. Consists of five sections: an introduction,

“Buddhist Clerics: Animals are Sentient Beings, but not Beasts,” “Pet Spirits in the
 Psychic Literature of the 1990s: Vengeful Spirits,” “New Concepts: Loving Spiritual

Companions in Heaven or Under the Rainbow Bridge,” and “Conclusion.”

McNeill, Lynne Sullivan. The Waving Ones: A Study of Cats in Folklore. 2002. Utah State

University, Master’s Thesis. A thesis discussing the role, meaning, and reason for

inclusion of cats in the folklore of various cultures. Consists of five chapters:

“Introduction,” “Cats as Supernatural Creatures,” “Gender Issues: Crazy Cat Ladies,”

“Gender Issues: Kitten-Killing Men,” and “Conclusion.”

“The Cat’s Tale: Neko no Sōshi.” Tales of Tears and Laughter, translated by Virginia Skord,

University of Hawaii Press, pp. 33-43. A medieval Japanese story in which a Japanese

Buddhist is visited in his dreams by both a cat and a mouse after an edict is passed

allowing cats to roam free.

“The Tale of the Mouse: Nezumi no Sōshi.” Monsters, Animals, and Other Worlds: A

Collection

of Short Medieval Japanese Tales, edited by Keller Kimbrough and Haruo Shirane,

Columbia University Press, 2018, pp. 275-293. A medieval Japanese story in which a

mouse is granted his wish of marrying a human, only for the human to elope, leading the

mouse to become a monk and seek enlightenment.