"Floating World Cat Painting: Kuniyoshi's Toy Painting Collection" Author: [Japan] Nagai Yuko Publisher: Cultural Development Press

Cats can be funny too!

The so-called "toy-e" refers to ukiyo-e suitable for children, which was produced from the end of the shogunate to the middle of the Meiji era. It mainly takes the form of reading materials, comics, and illustrated books, but also has a game mode that can be cut and assembled, and there are also suguroku and dress-up dolls, which occupy an important position as toys.

Among them, paintings about cats are very popular and still have many fans. Ukawa Kuniyoshi, a famous ukiyo-e artist with a wonderful imagination and his disciples, as well as many other excellent painters, have created many works. Party cats, working cats, acrobatic cats, hot spring cats, study cats, etc. It can be said to be a parade of anthropomorphic cats!

In addition, through the image of cats, you can learn about the children's games at that time, popular occupations, and customs that changed with the influx of Western culture. The book has chapters such as "Cat Building", "Cat Street", "Cat Leisure", "Cat Theater", and "Cat vs. Mouse", which are full of fun, just like peeking in the city of cats. It can be said to be the root of cat toy paintings, and many of Kuniyoshi's works are included in it!

Yuko Nagai is the chief curator of the Hiroshige Museum of Art at Nakagawa-cho Pier. She received her master's degree from the Harvard Extension School. Her curatorial work "Suzuki Harunobu's Calendars and Origami Exhibition" won the Alama E. Klett Award, and her "Lucky! Cats, Cats Exhibition" won the Shuei Planning Award of the Art Evaluation and Preservation Association. She has written "Eel Museum: From the Ecology to the Culture of Mysterious Creatures" (co-authored by Chemical Dojin Publishing Co., Ltd.) and "The Tale of Genji from Ukiyo-e" (co-authored by Futabasha). She is a permanent director and editorial committee member of the International Ukiyo-e Society.