Cats in Japanese Art: Picture Books by Bouquillard and Kusch

Joycelyn Bouquillard.
Cats of Japan: Woodblock Prints by Hokusai, Hiroshige and Other Artists, Second Edition.
Munich, London, New York: Prestel Verlag, 2024.
[Publisher; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]


Aya Kusch.
Cats in Spring Rain: A Celebration of Feline Charm in Japanese Art and Haiku.
San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2022.
[Publisher; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]


These two are mainly picture books. The text is very limited; Bouquillard and Kusch have relatively short introductions: 13 pages and 2 pages, respectively; otherwise the text merely identifies the artists and their works. However, notably, Aya Kusch translated the haiku in her book.


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In contrast to the books by Bouquillard and Kusch, the book by Rhiannon Paget that I read previously is a far more thorough consideration of Japanese art and the appearance of cats in a broad range of art forms over the full course of Japan's more than 2,000 years of history.

Rhiannon Paget.
Divine Felines: The Cat in Japanese Art.
Tokyo; Vermont; Singapore: Tuttle Publishing, 2023.
[Publisher; Google Books; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]
My post for Paget's book is here.


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Wikipedia Articles :

• Japanese art.
• Woodblock printing in Japan.
• Ukiyo-e.
• Cultural depictions of cats.

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Paget, Divine Felines: The Cat in Japanese Art (2023)

Rhiannon Paget.
Divine Felines: The Cat in Japanese Art.
Tokyo; Vermont; Singapore: Tuttle Publishing, 2023.

Book Information : Publisher; Google Books; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.

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Author Information :

• Rhiannon Paget, Curator of Asian Art, John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Florida State University, Sarasota, Florida.
• Rhiannon Paget, LinkedIn.
• torakichi_the_first, Rhiannon Paget, Instagram.
• Rhiannon Paget, GoodReads.
  (A list of her books.)
• Rhiannon Paget, The Japan Times.
  (Her articles published in The Japan Times.)
• Niki Kottmann, "Rhiannon Paget talks marine biology and Asian art", [Sarasota] Observer, 05 January 2018.
• "Divine Felines: The Cat in Japanese Art with Rhiannon Paget (10.26.2023)", Bookstore1Sarasota, YouTube, 30 October 2023.
  (An interview and audience Q&A, 37 minutes.)
• "Saitō Kiyoshi: Graphic Awakening (Lecture by Dr. Rhiannon Paget)", JASA: Japanese Art Society of America, YouTube, 13 July 2021.
  (Divine Felines includes some works by Saitō Kiyoshi; in this talk his cat prints are discussed beginning at 28:48.)
• "Purrfection in Print: Saitō Kiyoshi’s Feline Designs", Chester Beatty [Museum, Dublin, Ireland], YouTube, 25 February 2022.
  (Includes a brief discussion of other artists' works that also appear in Divine Felines.)

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Wikipedia Articles :

• Japanese art.
• Japanese aesthetics.
• Kaibyō "(怪猫, 'strange cat') are supernatural cats in Japanese folklore."
• Bakeneko "(化け猫, 'changed cat') is a type of Japanese yōkai, or supernatural entity; more specifically, it is a kaibyō, or supernatural cat."
• Nekomata "(original form: 猫また, later forms: 猫又, 猫股, 猫胯) are a kind of cat yōkai described in Japanese folklore, classical kaidan, essays, etc."
• Maneki-neko "(招き猫, lit. 'beckoning cat') is a common Japanese figurine which is often believed to bring good luck to the owner."
• Cultural depictions of cats.

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Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy :

• Graham Parkes and Adam Loughnane, Japanese Aesthetics.

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