According to “Things Japanese” by Basil Hall Chamberlain, first published in 1890, a cat (neko) is a nickname colloquially applied to the youngest and most attractive singing-girls (geisha), the reason being that they bewitch men with their artful ways, like magic cats with several long tails (nekomata), while young courtesans (oiran) are called foxes (kitsune) for much the same reason.
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3 comments:
Adorable artwork!
That's interesting. Even today we still use a word that means "feline" to describe women. It's not quite as respectful as "neko", of course.
Neko would be a good name for a kitty.
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