Teasing the Cat
Medium
Woodblock print; ink and color on paper
Dimensions
14 9/16 x 10 in. (37 x 25.4 cm)
Classification
Prints
Culture & Period
Japan · Meiji period (1868–1912)
Department
Asian Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Lincoln Kirstein, 1985
Accession Number
JP3687b
Tags
Art Historical Context
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi1839–1892), one of the great masters of ukiyo-e woodblock, created *Teasing the Cat* 1888 during Japan's Meiji period (1868–1912). This era marked rapid modernization and Western influences, yet Yoshitoshi clung to traditional Japanese aesthetics, blending them with innovative flair. The print captures a playful domestic moment—a woman gently teasing a cat—evoking the bijin-ga tradition of depicting elegant women in everyday scenes, infused with subtle humor and grace. Crafted as a woodblock print with ink and color on paper, the work exemplifies the meticulous ukiyo-e tech...
About the Artist
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi · 1839–1892
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi was born on April 30, 1839, in the Shimbashi district of Edo, the city that would become Tokyo. At the age of eleven he was apprenticed to Utagawa Kuniyoshi, one of the great masters of the Japanese woodblock print, who gave the boy the artist name 'Yoshitoshi' as a mark of lineage within the Utagawa School. From Kuniyoshi, Yoshitoshi absorbed the full tradition of ukiyo-e — th...