Whiskers & Wings · Diptych of woodblock prints · Utagawa Kuniyoshi, c. 1847
The Okazaki Cat Demon
A kabuki ghost story with a cat at its heart.
The Work
The Okazaki cat-demon scene from an 1847 kabuki play. A giant cat face looms behind Inabanosuke, who sits holding a sutra. Two sheets of a three-sheet print.
Look Closer
The figures in front are in bright color; the cat behind is a pale, misty gray. Strength of color separates the real from the uncanny.
The Artist
Kuniyoshi was born in 1797 to an Edo dyer — the same year as Hiroshige. Around thirty, his heroes of the Water Margin made him famous.
The Artist
A devoted cat lover, he kept many cats and is said to have painted with one tucked in his robe. He reportedly gave dead cats Buddhist names.
Japan at the Time
The Tenpō Reforms of 1842 banned prints of actors and courtesans. Kuniyoshi slipped past the censors by giving fish actors' faces, or passing prints off as wall graffiti.
Culture & Values
Old cats were believed to grow forked tails and become nekomata, able to dance and take human form. Cat ghosts were hits on the kabuki stage.
Meanwhile, in the World
In 1851 London held the first World's Fair, gathering goods from around the world in the glass-and-iron Crystal Palace.
Afterward
Kuniyoshi's studio trained many artists, including Tsukioka Yoshitoshi. Kawanabe Kyōsai also studied with him as a small child.
Listen while you look
Ten quiet minutes with this work alone, with The Okazaki Cat and Two-Tailed Cat — or keep going through the full hour of Whiskers & Wings.
Take this print home
Printed to order and shipped worldwide.
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