More Cats by Inagaki Tomoo

If I'm featuring a short run of haikus in response to cat prints by Japanese printmakers, I just gotta include one by Inagaki Tomoo.

A muscular pair of gargoyles
Perched on the midnight watch
The moon winks

Another Cat by Ingaki Tomoo

I first wrote about one of Ingaki Tomoo's masterful cat woodcuts last month, but since I just completed my own black and white woodcut of a sleeping tabby, I felt the urge to draw attention to, and reflect on this image.

CAT'S DREAM

The soft, sloshing sound of the sea
Or maybe the distant wing-beats
Of a flock of birds
Are they coming, or going?
Does the red hot smoothness,
The snoozing, stretched-out swine
Draw them close
Or frighten them away?
Green shadows teem with life
Like moss, or pools of microbes
The tide carries us in
Or maybe out to sea
Either way, we float

"Cat in Bush" by Inagaki Tomoo

Inagaki Tomoo is sometimes called the Cat Artist because of how prolific he was depicting highly stylized felines. The style of most of his prints looks specific to the 50's and 60's, with most of his cats even more simplified and geometric than this example.

He thinks he's hidden
But two bright, yellow eyes have 
Given him away