The Giant Cat (Bakeneko) – Kawanabe Kyōsai

To this cat, the travellers are just two little mice. A huge white cat with brown patches rises from the tall bamboo grass, yellow eyes half-closed, a sly smile showing two small fangs. One paw is already raised, claws out, as if about to play with its prey. Below, on a sandy bank, two tiny travellers panic: one falls backwards with his arms flung up, the other crouches and hides his head, his hat and bundle dropped on the ground.

The humour comes from the contrast of scale and mood. The cat looks perfectly calm, even amused, while the men are terrified. Kyōsai paints the cat with tender precision, from the fine white whiskers to the nicked ear of an old tomcat, and the travellers with quick, lively strokes. Is it an ordinary cat seen from a mouse’s point of view, or a bakeneko, one of the shape-shifting monster cats of Japanese folklore? The ambiguity is part of its charm.

Kyōsai, the artist of demons and cats

Kawanabe Kyōsai (1831-1889) was one of the most inventive artists of 19th-century Japan, as famous for his demons and satires as for his animals. As a child, he trained briefly in the studio of Utagawa Kuniyoshi, the great lover of cats, and shared his taste for the strange and the comic. Discover the bakeneko and other monster cats in our guide to Japanese yokai.

• Artist: Kawanabe Kyōsai (1831-1889)
• Date: Meiji era
• Format: horizontal
• Theme: giant cat, bakeneko, Japanese humour

A playful horizontal print for a living room, above a sofa or a bed, and the perfect gift for a cat lover. Pair it with Kuniyoshi’s The Ghost Cat, and discover more of the artist with Crow Resting on a Tree Trunk or in our Kyōsai collection.