Cats in Ukiyo-e: Utagawa Kuniyoshi's World of Cat Spirits

By the Edo period, cats were common companions throughout Japan, but the era's true 'cat painter' was Utagawa Kuniyoshi. His cats can act, fight, laugh, and rage. In the series Cats as the Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō, felines take on the roles of travelers on Japan's most famous road, each rendered in a recognizable setting. In The Old Battleground of Soma, a giant skeletal demon peers over a rooftop while the warrior below notices nothing — and a small cat peeks from behind a curtain, as if whispering to the viewer not to be fooled by appearances. Kuniyoshi was famously devoted to his own cats, and is said to have kept several in his studio, observing them carefully before every brushstroke. The soul in ukiyo-e cats comes from a man who treated them as friends.