Cat Demon Returns

So, a while back my wife caught a cat demon and many readers wrote in to find out how the demon is doing and what came of it.

I haven’t written back because, frankly, I had no clue. Until now.

Yesterday I was scrolling on the socials, when I saw a familiar face come up on the feed. As you can see, Cat Demon is all growed up and having fun at the seaside:

Being nosy, I went into her profile and she’d posted a lot of pics of her hanging out with the girls:

Looks like she’s got a special guy in her life:

But she doesn’t always make good choices. Here she is with the same guy playing some game called “Stinky Sleeve”?! (Japanese readers born before 1900, hit me up if you know what the youths are doing here)

All these prints are by Utagawa Kuniyoshi and Dear Reader – he’s got some bangers! Check out these other cat prints:

Miscellaneous animal abuse:

(In that last guy’s defence, the snake did try to eat his Magic Toad friends…)

There are also some primo ghosties:

Utagawa Kuniyoshi also created a print of this guy with fantastic wide-leg pants. Great wild hair. Just like the wolf in the internationally beloved cartoon Nu Pogodi:

There are very dynamic images of samurai in battle. I especially like the ones that include warfare with gunpowder, because it’s not what you’d expect from samurai.

There are also some fascinating prints from a play called 新板越白浪 about a historical female bandit (Kishin Omatsu) and her ninja troop.

She would wait by a stream. When a samurai would happen to pass by, she would ask them for help getting across. The samurai would carry her over on his back – while crossing, she would take out a blade and slice his throat open.

I couldn’t resist popping Tsukioka Yoshitoshi take on the subject here. Feel that energy:

Leftovers

For more Kuniyoshi than you can shake a stick at, visit the Waseda University Cultural Resource Database and search for artist name “国芳”.

It’s possible to buy some pretty neat ukiyo-e prints just like the ones above. Just be careful on e-Bay, it looks like people are selling modern reprints (using the original wood blocks) and not making it obvious – if it looks too good to be true, then think twice about buying it.

More Japan posts:

• Embroidered Life Stories
• Tanaka Isson
• Cat Demon Returns
• Waiting for the Kwisatz Haderach
• Manners and Customs of Women