Cat with Hydrangea

This ink painting was painted by Tō Yōkoku (1760-1801), who was born as a son of a doctor in Nagasaki. Some sources say that his father was a Chinese doctor, but there is no clue to prove it. Yōkoku was already good at painting in his twenties and was famous around the Tottori region. He was adopted into Katayama's family in Tottori in 1793. Yōkoku was one of talented painters of Chinese style painting of those days. Especially, various animals in his paintings are very eccentric and vigorous.