Art photography
The Strawhat Cat
Bibliographic Details
| Author | Masahisa Fukase |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Bunka Shuppankyoku |
| Place of publication | Tokyo |
| Year | 1979 |
| Edition | First edition |
| Binding | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9784579500222 |
| Collation | 92 pp. |
| Language | Japanese |
| Dimensions | 225 x 185 mm |
Condition Report
| Notes | Fine copy including obi, minimal shelf wear |
|---|
The Strawhat Cat: Masahisa Fukase’s Domestic Theatre
Masahisa Fukase’s The Strawhat Cat (Neko no mugiwara bōshi) is a 1979 colour photobook in which two cats, Sasuke and Momoe, become both lively subjects and vehicles for self-portraiture. Published in Tokyo by Bunka Shuppankyoku, it belongs to Fukase’s sustained engagement with domestic life, intimate relationships, and animals.
The book and its cats
A Japanese antiquarian record identifies the first edition as a hardcover published in 1979, with 89 numbered pages, measuring approximately 22.5 × 18.6 cm; it also credits Hideaki Murase with the book design (Nihon no Furuhonya / Kosho.or.jp). The National Diet Library independently records the Tokyo publisher, February 1979 publication, and 89-page extent (National Diet Library).
Page counts in dealer records vary—89, 92, and 96 all appear—probably because some cataloguers count preliminary or unnumbered leaves differently. The Japanese bibliographic listing’s 89 numbered pages is the safest formulation; completeness should be judged from the physical collation rather than a single secondary count.
Specialist descriptions place the book third in Fukase’s sequence of cat publications, after Viva! Sasuke and Sasuke!! My Dear Cat. It introduces Momoe alongside a second-generation Sasuke (Made in Wonder).
Autobiography in animal form
The book is more than an album of appealing pets. In an afterword translated and reproduced by specialist sources, Fukase says he did not want merely beautiful or cute cat photographs. He wanted to photograph his own affection as reflected in the cats’ eyes and suggests that the book could be called a self-portrait borrowing the forms of Sasuke and Momoe (Made in Wonder; Collector Daily). That statement provides a firm basis for reading the animals as collaborators and doubles rather than decorative subjects.
Cats are particularly suited to Fukase’s method. Their movements can be prompted but not fully controlled. A turn of the head, a leap, a refusal to look, or an encounter with an ordinary object gives each image its tension. Humour and tenderness coexist with a strong sense of projection: the photographs show the cats, but they also disclose the photographer’s attachment to them.
Colour and intimacy
The Strawhat Cat is a colour book. Its palette situates Sasuke and Momoe among streets, roofs, interiors, vegetation, and changing light rather than isolating them as formal studies. Colour brings the pictures close to the visual language of family snapshots while Fukase’s sequencing and framing keep that familiarity from becoming merely sentimental.
This combination is consistent with Fukase’s wider practice. The Masahisa Fukase Archives describes an artist who worked in series and transformed experiences of love, loss, loneliness, and depression into intimate—and often surprisingly playful—visual narratives. His wife Yoko, his father, and his cat Sasuke recur across that autobiographical body of work (Masahisa Fukase Archives). The cat photographs therefore belong at the centre of his practice, not at its margins.
Place in Fukase’s career
Fukase (1934–2012) graduated from Nihon University College of Art’s photography department in 1956 and became a freelance photographer in 1968 after work at the Nippon Design Center and Kawade Shobo Shinsha. Although he is best known internationally for Ravens, the archive emphasizes the range of his practice, including colour abstractions, Polaroids, self-portraits, family series, and experimental presentations (Masahisa Fukase Archives). The Strawhat Cat demonstrates how play and domestic affection could carry the same autobiographical intensity as his darker work.
Collector’s notes
The first edition is identified by the Bunka Shuppankyoku imprint, 1979 date, Japanese text, hardcover binding, and compact 22.5 × 18.5 cm format. Copies survive both with and without the original obi; Made in Wonder explicitly describes examples in both states. An obi is therefore an important completeness and condition point, not evidence of a separate edition. Sunning, rubbing, tears, and loss to the band should be recorded independently from wear to the boards and contents.
The Strawhat Cat matters because its charm and seriousness are inseparable. Fukase uses the unpredictability of cats to make an affectionate performance, then turns that performance back toward the photographer himself.
