/ 2026 / Nature / Domestic Animals

• Prize
  Honorable Mention
• Photographer
  Kazutoshi Ono, Japan
• Date of Photograph
  2025.12.31

Cats sometimes behave as if they were human.
In Japan, such uncanny moments have long been embraced as anthropomorphism and shaped into culture. The works of ukiyo-e master Utagawa Kuniyoshi are iconic—his cats are no longer mere animals, but beings that appear to carry a human soul.
Working within this lineage, I use the camera to capture the fleeting instant a cat becomes human. Through a contemporary lens, I seek to reinterpret this deeply rooted Japanese sensibility and share it with the world anew.
A cat is no longer just a cat.
Before us stands another form of “human.”