Maneki Neko

The first in Kawada Kan's series depicting the maneki-neko, this woodblock print renders the beckoning cat through the flat, stencil-influenced color vocabulary Kawada developed under Serizawa Keisuke's guidance. The composition likely presents the iconic form — a seated cat with one foreleg raised in invitation — using bounded color zones and minimal tonal gradation, consistent with the katazome aesthetic Kawada carried into his printmaking practice. As a [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) work, the artist would have cut, inked, and printed each block himself, controlling every stage of production. The maneki-neko motif draws from mingei sensibility, treating a vernacular object of folk belief as worthy of serious formal attention within the postwar creative print movement.