Expelling the Demon-Cat

Tales from the Otoshibe Area

In the late spring of 1906, a rumor spread that a great beast, around 3.3 meters tall, had appeared in the area near the home of Benkai Takojiro. Then, in the middle of the night of the full moon in August, a man from Otoshibe passing through the area was attacked by the monster, and sought shelter in Benkai Takojiro’s home. Takojiro’s son, Yukichi, took his hunting rifle and two dogs and rushed to the scene of the attack, where he killed the beast. When he took a closer look at the monster, it was a white and ginger-haired cat, and the tip of its tail was forked into three.