Maneki Neko

A second compositional study of the maneki-neko subject within Kawada Kan's print series, this work likely varies the palette or scale relative to the first version while maintaining the same stencil-influenced flatness that characterizes Kawada's approach. The beckoning cat, here rendered through woodblock rather than katazome dye resist, retains the decorative clarity of the textile tradition Kawada absorbed from his teacher Serizawa Keisuke. Repeated treatments of the same motif were common in [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) practice as artists explored how color and surface could transform a single compositional idea. The print's likely use of two or more color blocks would reveal Kawada's interest in how adjacent hues activate the [washi](/glossary/washi) ground without the volumetric modeling of Western printmaking traditions.