A yokai said to appear at funerals, funeral processions, and graveyards to snatch coffins and corpses. In the early modern period it was told as a hellish jailer or thunder god’s doing, stealing bodies amid black clouds and lightning. Later it merged with bakeneko lore, spreading the belief that an aged cat becomes a kasha and preys on the dead. Reports occur nationwide and are not strictly framed as moral retribution. Traditional countermeasures include blades, prayer beads, mounded earth, and constant vigil.
Folklore & Legends
In Echigo, a funeral procession was attacked by black clouds and thunder, but a monk of Untoan protected the body through spiritual power. In Yamagata, temple priests drove away a “kasha cat,” and its severed tail was dedicated as a protective charm. In Miyazaki, wakes kept constant watch and barred cats from approaching. Similar beings—under different names—are recorded in Gunma, Nagano, and Tono in Iwate, all targeting coffins and funeral processions.
Yokai Cards2
Kasha (Corpse-Dragging Fiend) across multiple art-style decks
A composite form of the bakeneko that solidified in the late 17th century. An aged cat arrives with thunderstorm or dark clouds, seizing the corpse from a coffin by exploiting lapses during funeral processions or wakes. After Toriyama Sekien’s illustrations, the feline form became standard. Regional lore varies: forked tails, attendant will-o’-wisps, or concealment within black clouds. Its targets are not limited to evildoers. Folk countermeasures include night-long vigil at the wake, placing knives or razors atop the coffin, using prayer beads and sutra recitation, and disruptive funeral tactics.
Character Profile
This section is our own creative profile for storytelling. It is not historical fact or scholarship.
said to be repelled by monks’ chanting, Buddhist prayer beads, apotropaic use of blades
Abilities
summoning thunderstorms and dark cloudsleaping high to snatch coffinssensing the scent of death and the signs of funeralscamouflage within will-o’-wisps and black clouds
Weaknesses
sutra chanting and Buddhist spiritual power, Buddhist prayer beads, apotropaic use of knives and razors, vigilant human watch day and night
Habitat
along funeral routes, graveyards, rooms where wakes are held, settlements in mountain valleys
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The diagram below is a diagnostic evaluation chart for Cat-Type Kasha (Early Modern Tale Variant). The higher the value of each item, the stronger that characteristic is expressed.
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