Photo/Illutration A cat relaxes in a room. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Was Natsume Soseki (1867-1916), widely regarded as the foremost novelist of modern Japan, a cat lover or a dog lover? The answer remains elusive, with opinions divided.

What is certain, however, is that the first feline to leave its pawprint on the Natsume household was the model for the unnamed narrator of his debut novel, “Wagahai wa Neko de Aru” ("I Am a Cat").

When the animal wandered into Soseki’s home, his family tried to chase it away. Soseki, however, objected: “Just let it stay,” he said.

“The first cat, though a stray, became quite famous in certain circles,” he later wrote in “Garasudo no Uchi” ("Inside My Glass Doors"), a collection of essays and reflections.

His tone is cool and matter-of-fact, as aloof as the creature itself. Yet, perhaps it was precisely because he cared that such a masterpiece came into being.

At the Fuchu Art Museum in Tokyo, an exhibition devoted to feline-themed paintings is now under way under the title, “A History of Cat Painting Beginning with Foujita.”

When I visited last week, the galleries were lined with works by artists renowned for their affection for cats, foremost among them Leonard Tsuguharu Foujita (1886-1968), the Japanese-born French painter synonymous with the genre.

Foujita’s cats have an elegant, self-possessed air. The furry rascals painted by Genichiro Inokuma (1902-1993) are lively and exuberant. Morikazu Kumagai (1880-1977), meanwhile, depicts companions that seem free-spirited and whimsically at ease.

One cannot help but marvel at how sharply artists perceive character—and how vividly they render individuality.

The world teems with an astonishing variety of cat lovers and their devotion runs remarkably deep.

If these feline enthusiasts could bestow as much affection on people around them as they lavish on their whiskered companions, human society might be transformed.

But as everyone knows, that can never happen. Cats are loved precisely because they are cats.

As for me, I’ve never kept a cat. My parents have two calicos at home, and we’ve known each other for years. Yet to this day, they refuse to let me pet them. On the contrary, if I so much as draw near, they bare their teeth in fury.

For reasons I cannot fathom, they seem to despise me entirely.

—The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 19

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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