The Story of Nippondaemon and the Cat

Dear DailyArt users, if you need artsy calendars for 2020 we have something for you! Check out what you can buy on our new DailyArt online shop: Women Artists Monthly Wall Calendar, Masterpieces Monthly Wall Calendar, and Weekly Desk Calendar, with beautiful masterpieces and short stories about them. We ship worldwide!

Utagawa Kuniyoshi was a 19th-century ukiyo-e master who loved cats. When he became a teacher his students noted that his studio was always overrun by them! His fondness for felines crept into his work and they appear in many of his finest prints. Sometimes they crop up as characters from well-known stories, while other times they are beautifully expressive studies.

Japan abounds with legends and stories of vampire cats, witch cats, demon cats, and cats which portend disaster or good fortune. Because the feline is so woven into legend and mythology it is inevitable that it should end up as the subject of so many Japanese woodblock prints. This print is triptych depicting a theatrical scene of three actors and a monstrous ghost cat crashing through the bamboo blinds.

Uff, I hope that my cat, Pimpek won't ever turn into a demon cat!

And here's 15 cats in art history that every cat lover would love (as well as Pimpek) <3