Kitani (1895-1947) was a great nihonga painter (i.e. one who uses mineral pigments) and teacher who worked tirelessly to teach, nurture, and promote women artists in Japan.
This is a six-panel folding screen, painted on silk. A woman stands looking through a window at a boy inside, who appears to me as if he's not paying attention to her. This was painted just after the death of Kitani's younger brother, expressing her grief and how she misses him. The title comes from a song for the Buddhist Urabon festival, which is sung to welcome ancestral spirits visiting from the afterlife.
The story goes that Seihō was so impressed with a friend's cat that he bought it and photographed it extensively to make this painting. Supposedly it reminded him of a cat painted by the Chinese Song Dynasty emperor Huizong.
This is of the Nihonga school, a style of Japanese painting emphasizing the use of mineral pigments on silk or paper in a traditional Japanese style, as opposed to the growing Western styles that were becoming common in Japan.
Looks almost real, doesn't it? I love how the eyes confront us, even in mid-lick. This cat is taking no chances.