Cat Prints in Japanese Woodblock
Cats appear throughout Japanese woodblock printing, from Utagawa Kuniyoshi's nineteenth-century cat caricatures to Tomoo Inagaki's mid-twentieth-century sōsaku-hanga abstractions. They function as superstition, satire, companion, and design motif — a continuous thread across ukiyo-e, shin-hanga, and modern creative-print traditions.
About This Collection
Few subjects bridge the Edo, Meiji, and Shōwa eras of Japanese printmaking as vividly as the cat. Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797–1861) is the genre's foundational figure: a self-described cat lover who slipped his pets into warrior prints, kabuki parodies, and elaborate compositions that disguised banned actor portraits as feline tableaux. His "Cats Suggested as the Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō" (1850) reads as both satire and zoological catalogue.
Later artists treated the cat with a quieter eye. Hiroshige's domestic interiors framed cats at windows looking onto Edo. In the twentieth century, Tomoo Inagaki (1902–1980) reduced the cat to its essential form — bold black silhouettes against printed grain, the body abstracted into pure shape. Tadashi Nakayama, Shikō Munakata, and other sōsaku-hanga artists carried that modernist treatment forward, while Western collectors consistently rank cat prints among the most-searched subjects on the secondary market.
This collection draws together the most-tagged feline works in the Hanga catalogue, spanning every major Japanese printmaking tradition. Browse to compare Kuniyoshi's narrative density with Inagaki's reductive geometry, or to see how a single subject — domestic, observed, and quietly anthropomorphised — provided continuity across two centuries of stylistic upheaval.
Prints in This Collection (60)
Black Cat
黒猫
1960
Color woodblock print
Moonlight Night (Cat)
Woodblock print
Black Cat
early 1970s
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Leisure Hours (Nude and Cat)
Woodblock print
Black Cat in Tree
1940
Color woodblock print
Cats
1957
Color woodblock print
Ten Types of Female Nudes: Black Cat (Rajo jusshu: Yokushitsu nite)
Woodblock print
Cat and Calligraphy B6
Woodblock print
Cat Looking Back W
Woodblock print
Black cat and cherry blossoms
Woodblock print
Cat's Love
Woodblock print
Black Cat
Woodblock print
Cat- Kitten
Woodblock print
Black Cat
Woodblock print
White cat
Woodblock print
Cat and Stars — Neko to Hoshi
Woodblock print
Afternoon Cat - Gogo no Neko
Woodblock print
Neko wo Daku- Girl Holding Cat
Woodblock print
GOGO NO NEKO (cat in afternoon)
Woodblock print
Untitled- Cat
Woodblock print
Sleeping Cat
19th century
Woodblock print (nishiki-e), ink and color on paper with embossing and sunago
Giant Snow Cat
Woodblock print
Black Cat
c. 1960
Color woodblock print
Cat 2
Woodblock print
Two cats
Woodblock print
Cat Watching Goldfish
金魚鉢を見つめる猫
c. 1931
Color woodblock print
Cat and Calligraphy B6
Woodblock print
Cat (looking back) 2B
Woodblock print
Cat in Red
赤い猫
1962
Color woodblock print
Cat
Woodblock print
Cats
Woodblock print
Steady Gaze (Cat)
凝視する猫
1965
Color woodblock print
Cat
Woodblock print
Black Cat at Night
Woodblock print
Cat
Woodblock print
Nude Woman Holding a Black Cat
1915
Woodblock print
Black Cat In Green And Yellow Tree
Woodblock print
Kuro neko (Black Cat) / Ishimoku-shu (First Thursday Collection, Vol 3)
Woodblock print
Boy Holding a Cat
1957
Woodblock print
Cats
Woodblock print
Girl with Cat
1957
Color woodblock print
Lovesick Cat
20th century
Color woodblock print; edition 90/100
My Family, Dog and Cat
1957
Woodblock print
Cat and Goldfish
c. 1928–1930
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Kitten and Lantern
c. 1928–1930
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Cat with Bell
Woodblock print
Playing cats
Woodblock print
Woman Seated on a Pillow Reading a Letter While a Cat Sleeps Behind Her, Taishô period, dated 1918 (9th month of Taishô 9)
Taishô period, 1912-1926
Woodblock print
Cat, from the series "Steady Gaze" ("Gyoshi")
1943
Color woodblock print
Cat (Neko), from the series Steady Gaze (Gyôshi)
1958
Wood block for printing
Steady Gaze (Two Cats)
1952
Color woodblock print; edition 73/200
Image No. 7: Black cat (c)
Woodblock print
Akasaka: Lovesick cats
Woodblock print
Cat and Three Kittens
1960
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Cat and Ball
Woodblock print
Cat Catching a Rat
1920s
Woodblock print (nishiki-e), ink and color on paper
Fighting between a rat and a cat (title not original)
Woodblock print
Beauty with a Cat playing with a String of flags
Woodblock print
Black Cat - 黒猫
Woodblock print
Woman and Cat
Woodblock print
Frequently Asked Questions
Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797–1861) is the most famous Japanese cat-print artist. He produced extensive cat-themed series during the Edo period, including kabuki parodies cast entirely with feline performers and the 'Cats Suggested as the Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō.' In the twentieth century, Tomoo Inagaki became the leading shin-sōsaku-hanga cat specialist.
Original Kuniyoshi cat prints in good condition typically sell at auction for several hundred to several thousand dollars depending on edition, condition, and series. Modern Inagaki cats are also highly collected, with rare impressions reaching four figures.
Cats in ukiyo-e carry layered meanings: domestic companionship, the supernatural (the bakeneko or 'monster cat'), satire of human behaviour, and good fortune (the maneki-neko). Kuniyoshi often used cats to bypass shogunate censorship of actor prints.
The grid below resolves at render time to every artwork tagged with 'cats' in our catalogue, sorted by artist. Click any print for full metadata, technique, and provenance.