Since arriving in Japan aboard Chinese ships transporting sacred Buddhist scriptures in the mid-sixth century, cats have proceeded to purr and paw their way into the heart of Japanese life, folklore, and art. On view at Japan Society Gallery from Friday, March 13, to Sunday, June 7, 2015, Life of Cats: Selections from the Hiraki Ukiyo-e Collection illustrates the depth of this mutual attraction by mining the wealth of bravura depictions of cats to be found in ukiyo-e woodblock prints of the Edo Period (1615-1867).

“Much that is fundamental to the Japanese character can be gleaned from these historic popular prints that feature cats in everyday life and lore,” notes Miwako Tezuka, director of the Japan Society Gallery. For the showing, Dr. Tezuka has selected a mix of both iconic and little-known prints, 90 in all, from the world-renowned collection of the Hiraki Ukiyo-e Foundation in Tokyo: roughly half will be on view through April 26; then the other half will be presented from April 29 to June 7. Complementing the master prints are manga, porcelain figures, and books, many on loan from private collections in the US. In the final section, young visitors will be able to play with facsimiles of the unique type of print called omocha-e, or “toy prints,” which were often designed expressly to delight children.

The exhibition opens with the longest-lasting image of a cat in Japanese literature, from the early 11th-century classic, The Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki Shikibu. As illustrated by Utagawa Kunisada, the woodblock print, The Third Princess, depicts the erotic moment after a kara neko, or cat originally brought from China, pulls up a hanging blind while playing, revealing the beautiful third daughter of the ruling emperor to a young courtier. Also in this early section is Utagawa Hiroshige’s iconic Visit to the Tori no machi Festival, Rice Fields in Asakusa, from the series, 100 Famous Views of Edo (1857). Hiroshige’s depiction of a white cat perched on a windowsill, gazing out towards the sunset, is one of the most reproduced images by an ukiyo-e master.

Dancing, making music, acting, and performing acrobatic acts: anthropomorphized cats are shown at the pastimes that flourished during the prosperous and pleasure-seeking Edo period. In Utagawa Yoshiiku’s Assignations of Otomi and Yosaburō (1860), six cats are shown gesturing and emoting. They are actually famous kabuki actors whose features the artist has slyly captured under stage make up, cat ears, and whiskers. Members of the theater-going public of the day would have relished identifying each performer.

Although initially imported to protect sacred scriptures, cats, being cats, in time began to be known for stealing food and destroying favorite possessions. This dual nature is perhaps most famously associated with the kabuki play, The Scene of Okazaki from the Fifty-Three Stations. The horror story about a cat that acquired human language was dramatized with an intricate mixture of classical references, becoming such a sensation that it inspired numerous depictions in ukiyo-e prints, including the dynamic triptych (1827) by Utagawa Kuniyoshi featured here, where a giant yellow-eyed cat crouches in the background, preparing to pounce on its tiny human prey.

Because lions and tigers are not native to Japan, some Edo-period artists began to look to house cats as handy models for the exotic predators. A visitor to Japan Society who closely examines the woodblock entitled Watōnai Subduing a Tiger (ca. 1780-90) will see that its creator, Katsukawa Shun’ei, has given the tiger who attacks the legendary hero Watōnai the slit pupils of a domestic cat. Edo-period artists continued to morph cats into lions and tigers until the influence of Western art became strong in the late 1800s.

The final section of Life of Cats is devoted to one of the most charming genres of Japanese art, Omocha-e or toy pictures, which were created to teach children to read, memorize, and count, as well as to convey lessons about morality and social conduct. These toy pictures are rare today because they were heavily used, cheaply mass-produced, and often created by anonymous artists. The Hiraki Ukiyo-e Collection, however, has a large holding of well-preserved omocha-e that Japan Society Gallery has tapped to present 12 rarely seen prints, including Utagawa Yoshifuji’s A Picture of a Popular Hot Spring (1880), where cats enact a cross section of daily activities, from bathing, to daintily taking tea, to selling items on the street.

Just as ukiyo-e prints were a popular, not rarified, art form from the mid-1600s to the late- 1800s, so were ceramic cat figures mass produced for the middle class consumer from the late 19th century to the early decades of the 20th century. Among five nearly life-size figurines featured in the exhibition are two sleeping cats that seem to absolutely purr with domestic contentment: one a work of Satsuma ware signed by its creator, Kizan, and the other a gilded, white spotted Kutani ware figure from the 1890s, around whose neck is a red and blue patterned bow.