Maneki Neko

This woodblock print depicts the maneki-neko, the beckoning cat figure long associated with commercial good fortune in Japanese popular culture. As a third variant in Kawada Kan's series on this subject, it likely explores a distinct colorway or compositional arrangement from its companion prints, demonstrating the [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) practice of working a motif through multiple impressions to test formal and chromatic possibilities. Kawada's training under Serizawa Keisuke is evident in the flat, bounded color fields and crisp contour lines characteristic of katazome stencil work adapted to the woodblock medium. The subject — a seated cat with one paw raised — allowed Kawada to organize the composition around simple geometric forms while referencing the folk-art tradition of mingei objects.