Nabeshima Bakeneko Legend

The Nabeshima bakeneko legend is the leading early-modern Saga kaidan, in which the spirit of a wronged cat is woven into the succession troubles of the Nabeshima daimyo house. In the early Edo period the retainer Ryuzoji Mata-shichiro is said to have been killed after offending the daimyo, and his grieving mother to have taken her own life; the family cat, drinking her blood, became a bakeneko, attached itself to the lord's wife and caused nightly disturbances in the residence. The retainer Komori Han-zaemon, keeping watch one night, identified the cat and put it down. The story is layered over the historical Nabeshima sodo (the succession dispute between the Ryuzoji and Nabeshima lines) and was widely circulated through the Meiji kabuki Saga no Oku Yobyo-dan and through koshaku. The cycle has three parts: the unjust death of a Ryuzoji retainer and the suicide of his mother; the cat's transformation and the disturbances at the lord's residence; and the subjugation by Komori. The pattern of clan-troubles fused with bakeneko narrative belongs to the same genre as the Arima (Kurume) and Okazaki cat affairs. The setting is around the former Saga castle in Saga City and the Ryuzoji Hachimangu in Hakusan, with the Nabeshima family temple Koden-ji in Honjo-cho holding the clan tombs; the Saga Castle Honmaru History Museum preserves related materials. Sources include the kabuki Saga no Oku Yobyo-dan (Meiji period), the koshaku Nabeshima Sodo, the Saga-han Kashindan Keizu and the folklore volume of the Saga prefectural history.