Cats of Osamu Moriguchi Vol. 1 (Art in the Pocket by Kitan Club)

Osamu Moriguchi is a famous sculptor in Japan. In 2007, he started specializing very realistic miniature cat sculptures. He has produced many prototypes for Kitan Club’s Nature Techni Colour line. His first cats produced for them was the Cat Magnet & Strap collection in 2012 (which interestingly was reissued just last year by Ikimon). Ikimon was formed in 2014 when Junya Sato and others left Kitan Club and took the NTC collection with them. In 2020, Kitan Club released a set of four cats by Moriguchi for their Art in the Pocket collection. That set, which we are looking at today, consists of four black-and-white cats in different positions: scratching, laying down, grooming, and crouching. In 2021, a second set was released with four black-and-white cats in different positions (sitting, stretching, sleeping, and playing). In 2022 and 2023, the sculpts from the first two sets were reissued but in different colors (solid black, solid white, calico, etc.). The cats seem to be ‘generic’ domestic cats and don’t appear to represent a specific breed. When I first started the synoptic non-arthropod part of my collection, I acquired the ‘crouching’ cat from today’s set to represent a domestic cat. However, after acquiring more domestic cats representing specific breeds, I decided to go ahead and complete this set. I am grateful I did, but it took much restraint to not get all four complete sets :-). I don’t even know why I call the non-arthropod part of my collection synoptic anymore LOL.

The four cats are sculpted the same size. Scale is hard to calculate based on their postures, but using the ‘scratching’ cat, the shoulder height is approximately 4.0 cm for a scale of 1:5.8-1:6.3 based on a shoulder height range of 23-25 cm. The domestic cat needs no introduction, so on to the pics.

A. Cat Scratching

B. Cat Laying

C. Cat Grooming

D. Cat Crouching

What can I say, the detail on these is nothing short of spectacular. Cat sculpts by Osamu Moriguchi take the art to a whole new level. I suspect this set (and the other three) will appeal most to cat collectors. Cats have their own niche collectors, much like horses, dogs, and dinosaurs, which is why so many of them are produced gashapon-style in Japan. This set is still available but has become very expensive (the other three sets are not nearly as expensive, yet). They are available online from Japan, but since they were probably made in China, they may be a challenge for U.S. collectors at the moment, at least until the tariff situation gets resolved. But if someone needs a domestic cat in their collection, even just one, pick one from this set. You can’t go wrong!