Cat with a ribbon

A characteristic Inagaki cat study, likely rendering its subject as a flattened black silhouette punctuated by a single decorative band of color at the throat. Inagaki's cats almost always sit or crouch in profile, their bodies reduced to a continuous curving outline that the artist cut directly into the block — a [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) (creative print) commitment to artist-carved, artist-printed work. The ribbon motif introduces a small narrative incident into an otherwise iconic form: a domestic marker of ownership and affection set against the cat's self-contained stillness. Expect a limited palette of two or three flat fields, with the [washi](/glossary/washi) tooth visible through the inked areas where the [baren](/glossary/baren) has compressed pigment unevenly. The eyes are typically the only modeled element, reduced to slits, almonds, or paired discs that float against the black mass. Prints of this type circulated widely in the postwar Western market for Japanese modernism, where Inagaki's graphic economy aligned with mid-century interior taste while remaining anchored in the folk-print tradition he drew from.