Paw Prints: Cats and the Floating World
Leonhardt Auditorium

$12 per person for VBMA Members; $15 per person for non-members

Space is limited; pre-registration required. Tickets include admission to the galleries.

In 2024, Hello Kitty celebrated her Golden Jubilee as reigning Queen of Japanese Popular Culture since 1974. Since then, Japan’s reputation as a nation of cat-lovers has only grown through the popularity of cat temples, cat islands, cat cafes, and innumerable feline celebrities. However, Japan’s ailurophilia has a much longer history, which is vividly depicted in centuries of Japanese art and visual culture, especially in woodblock prints. Depending on the context, they may elevate the mood, invite good fortune, prompt the viewer to meditate on a tale, or provide evidence of an unseen world of magic and supernatural happenings.

Rhiannon Paget is the Curator of Asian Art at The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Florida State University. She has published research on paintings, textiles, popular visual culture, and especially woodblock prints, and curated numerous exhibitions of art from across the Asian continent. Her most recent books are Divine Felines: The Cat in Japanese Art (2023), Japanese Prints in Transition: From the Floating World to the Modern World (2023), and Saitō Kiyoshi: Graphic Awakening (2021).