Ceramic candle holder with Utagawa Kuniyoshi's (1797 - 1861) painting of cats from "The 53 post stations along the Tokaido road" on all sides. The cats are showing scenes from their every day activities. They represent different words which were like the names of the post stations. For instance Kamaya sounds like Tamaya "like a ball". So he drew a fat cat. The Tokaido was the principal road which connected the historical capital Edo to the new capital Kyoto. 53 post stations were built along this route where travelers could also stay the night.
