This is the first of tryptich of works known as "Cats for the 53 Stations of the Tōkaidō", a spoof of the popular Japanese print subject depictng the 53 rest areas along the coastal Tōkaidō road that ran from Edo to Kyoto. In this feline version, each of the cats is a play on words based on the names of the 53 stations plus also Nihonbashi and Kyoto, the beginning and end points of the route. Kuniyoshi was famous for being a cat-lover.