Cats of the Louvre, a Hobonichi Techo cover, and Taiyo Matsumoto

Cats of The Louvre caught my eye as I walked through the library last week. I don’t normally stop at the manga section, but there was something about the artwork on the cover that seemed familiar.

The familiarity was all the more striking when I opened up the book, and then I realized the illustrations looked almost exactly like that of my Hobonichi Techo cover!

Last January I (temporarily) abandoned by beloved Traveler’s Notebook for the Hobonichi Techo A6. I read that the Hobonichi is the most popular planner in Japan, and so, of course, I had to try it. It’s efficacy is a topic for another day; for now, let’s just stick with the covers.

It was Cat Over Kanda which I purchased because it looked exactly like the scene outside of my window when my husband and I left Narita airport on our way to Tokyo.

How it is that a “cartoon” and a landscape can so closely resemble one another I can only attribute to the skills of the artist, Taiyo Matsumoto.

Taiyo Matsumoto drew this Kanda, Tokyo themed illustration for us, and we’ve printed it across the entire techo cover.

The idea for this cover came from our recently moving our office to Kanda, Tokyo. We fell in love with this part of the city and wanted to make a techo designed after Kanda. Taiyo was the first person we thought of to ask for help. We wanted to see Kanda from his unique perspective and reached out to him about working together.

The name of the piece is Cat Over Kanda. You can see the famous arch bridge in Ochanomizu, called Hijiribashi, and the scene is drawn from the perspective of looking out from on that bridge.

Taiyo says, “That intersection between the JR train line at Ochanomizu Station and the bright red Marunouchi line that crosses over the Kanda River is really cool. And lately, I’ve been into drawing flying cats. I drew it this way because I feel happy when I look at cats.”

It’s impressive to see the stark contrast between the flexible and energetic cat and the red cars of the Marunouchi line.

This cover was carefully printed to retain all of the little details of the original illustration by Taiyo: the delicate brushstrokes of the cat’s fur, the texture of the paper that Taiyo himself painted onto, and all the tiny little details of the city.

Hobonichi site

If you decide to use a Hobonichi for your planner, and if you decide on a cover, perhaps this one would appeal to you as well…but, imagine my surprise at coming across a book by the same artist in my city’s library. I checked out the book, and read it in an hour as one is able to do with manga.

Cats of the Louvre, by Taiyo Matsumoto, is a charming story involving the cats which live in the Louvre Museum. “At night, within its darkened galleries, an unseen and surreal world comes alive—a world witnessed only by the small family of cats that lives in the attic. Until now…” (Viz.com) Matsumoto won his second Eisner Award in 2020 for this book.

Cats of The Louvre is my third book for 20 Books of Summer, the other two being The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher, and All The Lovers in The Night by Meiko Kawakami. My thoughts on those may or may not be further discussed on my blog; today I just wanted to tell you of kitties, covers, and the artist who connected them for me. In case you would be as intrigued as I am.