The Boy Who Drew Cats

A Japanese Folktale

Retold by Lafcadio Hearn & illustrated by Anita Kreituse

Tuttle Publishing 2026

Reviewed by Sandy Driessens

A farming family has been cursed with a small son who prefers drawing to farmwork. What does he draw? Cats … everywhere. To ensure a good life for him, his parents send him to be trained as a monk in the local temple. He is very clever, but what does he continue to do? Draw cats … everywhere.  The temple priest decides that the boy is more suited to an artist’s life. He sends him into the world, to find his fortune, with one enigmatic warning, “Avoid large places at night. Keep to smaller spots!” On an unexpected fateful night, this advice and his beloved cat drawings, who appear to have come to life, save him when he is threatened by a rat goblin. His cat art became his life from then on.

Lafcadio Hearn retold this 15^th century Japanese folktale in 1898. Thought to be based on the story of Sesshu, a Zen monk artist, Lafcadio used artistic licence to have the boy wander Japan as a famous artist … creator of cats. His language is simple but captures the story.

Latvian artist, Anita Kreituse, has replaced the original illustrations by Kason Suzuki. Moving away from the black ink and pale watercolours, she has used vibrant, colourful full-page spreads. The boy’s journey and his cat paintings are beautifully detailed. In her own form of artistic licence, instead of his art coming to life she has given him a guardian cat that is ever-present, large and subtly depicted in each image.

The message of being true to yourself and following your passion is not a new idea as is evidence in this 900-year-old folktale. Artistic children and adults will enjoy this tale.