An original neconeco drawing cut as a rubber stamp, with the illustrator's credit printed on the block beside the design. Most animal stamps are reduced to a clean outline before they reach the rubber. This one was not. The shiba's cheeks, the cat's brow and muzzle are rendered in scattered dots and short broken dashes, the marks left by a pen moving fast, and every one of them survived onto the die.
Each impression carries the drag and skip of the original line instead of a uniform contour, so no two prints feel mechanically identical. The cat's whiskers run straight across its bow tie rather than stopping politely at the edge, the kind of detail a production icon would have tidied away.
Two portraits in the series, each in a bow tie: a round-faced shiba grinning with its tongue out under a solid black bow, and a narrow-eyed cat in a striped one. At 25mm square the dotted work stays legible on letters, thank-you cards, pet pages, name labels, bookplates, and planner boxes. Smooth paper and a firm, even press keep the broken strokes separate; textured stock will fill them in and cost you the detail you came for.
Made by Kodomo no Kao, a Japanese stamp maker known for hand-drawn wood-mounted rubber stamps.
