新井白石
In the "" the courtier Sadatake Ise stated, "A cat that is several years of age will come to have two tails, and become the "yōkai" called nekomata." The mid-Edo period scholar Arai Hakuseki stated, "Old cats become 'nekomata' and bewilder people." and indicated that at that time it was common to believe that cats become "nekomata". Even the Edo-period Kawaraban reported this strange phenomenon.