Cat Poses 13 - Blue Cat

The thirteenth entry in Nishida's Cat Poses series, this print isolates a single cat rendered in a distinctive blue tonality, an unconventional coloristic choice that moves the image away from naturalism and toward expressive abstraction while remaining within the mokuhanga tradition. Blue cat subjects in Japanese printmaking carry no fixed iconographic meaning, giving artists latitude to use color as a vehicle for mood rather than description. The numbered series format suggests Nishida was systematically cataloguing feline postures — sitting, stretching, grooming, resting — each pose functioning as a discrete compositional study. The blue pigment, applied across multiple blocks to achieve tonal depth, would likely range from a pale wash at the edges to a saturated core, with flat areas of color punctuated by carved lines suggesting fur texture and facial features.