Utagawa Yoshiiku (1833-1904) Japanese, Print, "40 Cats." Depicts a woman being protected by a shisa (lion/dog) demon. 

Overall Size: 10 3/4 x 7 3/4 in. 
Sight Size: 7 x 4 1/2 in. 
#2524 #11 . 

Born the son of teahouse proprietor Asakusa Tamichi in 1833, Ochiai Yoshiiku became a student of ukiyo-e artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi toward the end of the 1840s, taking the Utagawa name some time after this. His earliest known work dates to 1852 when he provided the backgrounds to some actor prints by his master. Yoshiiku’s first works were portraits of actors (yakusha-e), beauties (bijin-ga), and warriors (musha-e). He later followed Kuniyoshi into making satirical and humorous pieces, and became the leading name in the field after Kuniyoshi’s death in 1861, crafting images that blended surrealism and traditional themes. Yoshiiku’s works include the print Kokkei Wanisshi-ki (“Comical Record of Japanese History”), which employs the traditional theme of Hyakki Yagyō on contemporary Japanese military actions in China. He cooperated with Tsukioka Yoshitoshi in the production of the muzan-e (“cruel pictures”) series Eimei nijūhasshūku (“Twenty-eight famous murders with verse”). He illustrated the Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun (“Tokyo Daily News”) from 1874 to 1876, and then co-founded the Tokyo E-iri Shinbun (“Tokyo Illustrated News”). The latter folded in 1889, and Yoshiiku returned to making prints. He struggled during his final years, and his last known print appeared in 1903. His three known students, Ikumura, Ikuei, and Ikumasa, all failed to achieve his level of recognition. Yoshiiku had ten children with his second wife, only one of whom survived childhood. Yoshiiku died at age 71 in a temporary residence on February 6th, 1904 in Honjo. He was buried at Anseiji temple in Asakusa and given the posthumous Buddhist name Juzen’in Hōkinikkaku Koji. 

This piece is titled “40 Cats” and appears to be an illustration Yoshiiku made in the 1860s based off the work of the writer Ryūtei Tanehiko, who was tortured to death by the conservative Tenpo Era government in 1842 for writing “A Rustic Genji by a Fraudulent Murasaki.”

Some spotting.