Cat and Bowl of Goldfish

Cat and Bowl of Goldfish is a shin-hanga woodblock print by the Japanese artist Ohara Koson, known during this period under his working name Shōson. The composition shows a black-and-white cat crouched over a glass fishbowl, its attention fixed on the orange goldfish swimming within. A small fishing net rests on the wooden surface beside the bowl, heightening the scene's quiet tension between predator and prey. Koson rendered the cat with great delicacy, its red collar a sharp accent against dark fur, and the goldfish luminous against the cool transparency of the water. The work exemplifies Koson's mastery of kacho-ga — the traditional Japanese genre of bird-and-flower painting — extended here to animals and domestic life. Published by the influential shin-hanga publisher Watanabe Shōzaburō, the print belongs to a broader series of cat studies through which Koson became particularly celebrated in both Japan and the West.