#Naoko Machida

[ortut]

Naoko Machida/町田尚子 (1, 2) - Cats at Every Turn, artist works [book], 2022

[holespoles]

Naoko Machida "Never Ending Story"

町田尚子

[campsis]

Naoko Machida 町田尚子 (@naoko.machida_art): 交信

[lilidawnonthemoon]

[sakurabreeze]

The Night of Cats Gathering（Nekozume no yoru） by Naoko Machida

[itsloriel]

Love For Cats

Naoko Machida is a contemporary Japanese artist, painter and book illustrator.

"Night is Full of Surprises"

[astrocitoma]

El gato que buscaba un nombre - Fumiko Takeshita y Naoko Machida 🌧️

[youngster-monster]

Find where you belong

Naoko watches her daughter give an entire box of her favorite cookies to a stray kitten and smiles, chest filling with warmth at the sight. Haru tells her she was speaking to the cat and she grins and nods along, holding her hand as she listens to what the cat ‘said’. She’s right: it is tough to survive in this world, when you’re that small and alone.

The next day, the kitten is still there. It mews pitifully as Haru, but she has nothing to give it to eat. Naoko squeezes her hand in comfort, and later that night she lets herself be convinced to leave some milk out for the cat. It’s nowhere to be seen, but the saucer is empty in the morning.

The day after that, they leave uneaten bits of fish from their dinner.

By the end of the week, with the cat showing no signs of leaving, Naoko just smiles, shakes her head and says, “We might as well bring it inside.”

Haru names her Yuki with the definitive assurance of a child who can talk to cats to ask them their name.

Yuki and Haru grow up together and are practically inseparable. Yuki goes to sleep curled next to Haru’s pillow every night, and she meets her at the door every day after school. They play together in the garden. They share their fish cookies. She never knows hunger or cold again.

She doesn’t talk to Haru again, because she doesn’t want the girl to appear weird or crazy to her classmates. But Haru still talks to her the way any human does to their cats, and Yuki never stops listening. If only because Haru is a never-ending source of amusement to her. She curls in the hollow of her back while Haru gushes about her latest crush and purrs comfortingly against her cheek when she’s sad about a bad grade or Machida getting a girlfriend.

It feels important, taking care of Haru the way Haru took care of her when she was still young and hungry.

So when cats from the Kingdom start loitering around their house, she makes it her mission to keep an eye on them and make sure they’re not making any trouble. There’s a black cat in particular who always stares back at her from the edge of the garden, never setting a paw in her territory but still… watching her with his mismatched eyes.

(“Hey mom, look: the cute black cat is back! Do you think he likes Yuki?”)

Then of course Haru has to go save that idiot cat from a moving truck. Her brave, kind Haru. Yuki hears about it from the rumor mill — cats are relentless gossip — and spends the hour it takes Haru to come home staring nervously through the window. She won’t believe she’s alright until she’s seen her safe and whole.

That night, the King’s retinue stops in front of their house. That’s when Yuki realizes how much trouble her human got in.

The catnip is a nice touch: she admits to spending most of the morning rolling in it in glee. The cats running after her and the mice, less so, but not altogether dangerous. Still, Yuki keeps following her, and when one of the King’s cats approaches Haru to tell her she’s to be wed to the prince…

That’s when Yuki decides to break her self-imposed rule. She jumps down from the tree she was hiding in, landing gracefully on Haru’s shoulders, and tells her, “Go to the Cat Bureau. They’re sure to help.”

Haru almost falls right back on her behind. Yuki jumps off before she’s dragged down with her and gets up on her hindlegs, smiling softly at her human.

“Y-Yuki? You can talk?”

“Of course I can,” she says. “Don’t you remember when we first met?”

Naoko told her the story the other night, so of course she knows. Still she looks shaken, and they don’t have time for that. As much as Yuki would like to stay and chat, they are in a hurry.

“We must go to the Cat Bureau,” she repeats. “There’s a big white cat at the Crossroad who knows the way.”

Haru blinks at her slowly, as if to make sure she’s not dreaming. Then she nods, gathers up Yuki in her arms, and takes the direction of the Crossroad.

Muta is not what she expected. Neither is Baron, though he’s as charming as she had heard. He kisses her paw in greeting, like a gentleman, and says in his calm, assured voice that he’ll help them. She’s almost disappointed they don’t have a magic solution to their problem — even more so when they don’t even get the chance to try this chiffon cake.

Things are a blur after that. Chasing after the cats who kidnapped Haru, flying after the magical portal to find the way to the Kingdom— through it all she’s terrified for her human, who’s all alone in this, without Yuki to keep an eye on her. They wouldn’t hurt her, but… What if Yuki’s too late?

Baron, noticing her anxiety, tries to reassure her. “Muta can protect her. And I won’t let her be trapped there, Miss Yuki, do not worry.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

“I never do.”

That does reassure her.

While Baron prepares his grand entrance, Yuki slips into the kitchen disguised as a servant. There’s so many of them it’s easy to go unnoticed.

When she sees Haru, distraught and alone — and Muta… jellified? — she feels her heart squeeze. She wants to go to her human and tell her everything will be alright, but she can’t. Instead she keeps her head down, fills the empty glasses that are waved in her direction, and waits for her cue.

(Baron is a wonderful dancer. She sighs, a bit wistfully, at the sight of him and Haru spinning around the room. This is the kind of rescue she dreamt of as a kitten, and it feels bittersweet to have such a thing happen to her most precious person instead.)

It breaks her heart to leave the two of them, but while they find their way through the labyrinth… There’s someone she needs to find.

She runs through the fields of the Kingdom, as fast as her four legs can take her, until she finds a cat wearing the uniform of the prince’s troops.

“The King is unwell,” she tells them honestly. He’s insane: it should count. “Where is Prince Lune?”

The soldier leads her to their superior officer, who leads her to his superior officer, and if this one hadn’t brought her to the prince she would have clawed someone’s eye out, damn her shy disposition. Her human is in danger.

Fortunately, she doesn’t have to go to such length. She finds herself face to face with Prince Lune and thinks, briefly, that he looks very handsome in his uniform. But she has been staring at him from the other side of a window for weeks now and he’s familiar enough that she feels no fear drawing to her full height, even though it’s not much, to look him in the eyes.

“Your father is trying to force my human to marry you,” she says. “Please, I need your help.”

He reacts quickly, and soon they are running towards the palace, followed closely by their troops.

For a moment it almost seems like everything will be easy, now that he’s here.

But then they see that the King has brought the Tower down, and she’s reminded that nothing is ever easy in the Cat Kingdom.

Lune faces his father. Tells him he won’t marry Haru under any circumstance. Tell him—

“I would like the chance to court Miss Yuki, if she will let me.”

Yuki draws back, surprised. This single sentence puts in perspective every encounter she’s had with this strange cat, and when she turns to him he’s looking at her with gentle, hopeful eyes.

“I- Yes,” she replies, at a loss for words.

When she looks at Haru again, the girl winks in an encouraging manner, and she feels herself blush.

Of course, that’s not enough to deter the King, and there’s more running and falling and narrowly avoiding a terrible fate.

But once they’re back home, safe and sound, with Haru sleeping peacefully in her own bed, human again…

Yuki can’t help but grin, giddy with a feeling she can’t quite place. This time, when the Cat Kingdom comes back to knock on the window, she’ll be ready.

She might even let him in.

[catsafarithewriter]

tcrmommabear reblogged your post “Is now a bad time to tell you that I’ve summoned a demon in the kitchen again or should I wait until after you’re done...”

#muta in the distance feels a tingling to shout goal as baron is punted #also im really curious about this au #theres demons witches creations #opens whole avenues for side characters backstories #muta is a human cursed into an immortal cat #or is a trickster god #machida is a warlock and gets offended when people assume it means male witch #naoko is a witch but had a patron and confuses to many people

I honestly hadn’t thought too far into this au concept - I just liked the idea of Baron being accidentally summoned by Haru, and a witch au was the easiest shortcut I could think of. Muta as a trickster god is always good though :D

[ortut]

Naoko Machida (町田尚子)

[holespoles]

Naoko Machida

‘Aida waiting for the bus’.

町田尚子

「バスを待つアイーダ」

[berlinphil]

...und draußen.

...and outside.

Photos: Monika Rittershaus

[aqua-tan]

High&Low cast

Sanno Rengokai Takanori Iwata, Nobuyuki Suzuki, Keita Machida, Kenjiro Yamashita, Kanta Sato, Taiki Sato, Masayasu Yagi, Shogo Iwaya, Shogo Yamamoto White Rascals Keiji Kuroki, Yuya Endo, Yu Inaba, Shuntaro Yanagi, Sho Kiryuin, Yutaka Kyan, Jun Utahiroba, Kenji Darvish, Tomoki Hirose, Ryo Matsuda, Shunsuke Nishikawa, Ikki Nishimura Oya Koukou Yuki Yamada, Takayuki Suzuki, Wataru Ichinose, Takahide Suzuki, RYU, Goki Maeda, Ken Aoki, Sho Kiyohara, Sho Jinnai RUDE BOYS Masataka Kubota, Reo Sano, ZEN, Tasuku Nagase, Gaku Sano Daruma Ikka Kento Hayashi, Ryohei Abe, Yuta Ozawa, Masaru Mizuno, Shunsuke Tanaka, Koji Moriya Ichigo Miruku Fujiko Kojima, Ayano Kudo, Kaede, Harumi Sato, Nonoka Yamaguchi, Airi Kido DOUBT Aoi Nakamura, Shintaro Akiyama, Kouhei Takeda MIGHTY WARRIORS ELLY, Kana Oya, Shuhei Nogae, Alan Shirahama, ANARCHY, NAOTO, Mandy Sekiguchi, LIKIYA, Kiki Sukezane Amamiya Kyodai TAKAHIRO, Hiroomi Tosaka, Takumi Saitoh MUGEN AKIRA, Sho Aoyagi, Hiroyuki Takaya, Yushin Okami, Arata Iura Leaders of Kuryu Group Masahiko Tsugawa, Koichi Iwaki, Goro Kishitani, Masaya Kato, Takashi Sasano, Masahiro Takashima, Houka Kinoshita, Tatsuya Nakamura, Taichi Saotome Members of Kuryu Group Naoki Kobayashi, Kozo Takeda, Takahiro Kuroishi, Jutta Yuki, SHOGEN, Kenchi Tachibana, Hayato Onozuka, Tomoya Shiroishi, Hideyuki Araki, Kouhei Watanabe

also starring Joey Iwanaga, Taro Nakatani, JAY, TAKERU, Yasuhiro Kido, Kousei Amano, Shuuka Fujii, Karen Fujii, Nozomi Bando, Kohei Ikeue, Noémie Nakai, Mai Hakase, Hatsunori Hasegawa, Hiroyuki Watanabe, Kenichi Yajima, Keisuke Horibe, Yosuke Saito, Rio Suzuki, YOU, Naoko Iijima, Kosuke Toyohara, Kyoko Koizumi

[sindysugar]

So... I'm going to write a Gender Bender of The Cat Returns...

I've been trying to come up with everyone's name, but I'm not too sure about the names I have so far... What do you think? Have any suggestions?

Haru / Hiro

Baron / *I already have a for sure plan what to name you Baron.... MUWAHAHA!*

Naoko / Nakazo

Hiromi / Hidemi

Machida / Machi

Tsuge / Tsumugi

The Cat King / The Cat Queen

Natori / Naori

Natoru / okay...  Natoru will keep their name because truthfully I don't know which Natoru to base off of (the sub (female) or the dub (male)). So in this, I'm just going to keep them gender neutral.

Lune / Luna? *undecided

Yuki / *undecided

Muta / Luna? Reason I think maybe Luna, because in the Whisper of the Heart manga it's implied Muta has a sister named Luna, so I figured, why not give Muta's long lost sister some love! xD But otherwise, it's still. . .*undecided

Toto / *undecided

Renaldo Moon / *undecided

[tonyguppy]

Trio Live...With Youichi Kawakatsu and Naoko Fukuda at "Into the Blue" in Machida.. Also in photo, Kaleb and Miyuki

[nikukyuv-blog]

絵本の中の猫が大集合！作家15名の原画を展示する「絵本原画ニャー！」尾道市立美術館で開催

作中に猫が登場する絵本の原画などを展示する「絵本原画ニャー！―猫が歩く絵本の世界」展が7月6日(土)から、広島県の尾道市立美術館で開催されます。

©Chiki Kikuchi/Naoko Machida/Kayako Nishimaki 猫のあしあと·片岡まみて

絵本にはたくさんの動物が登場します。中でも猫は人気者。

本展は著名な絵本作家が描いたユニークな絵本の中から「猫」をテーマにした絵本原画を多数展示し、原画を間近でみることで、画家の息遣いまで感じることができる展覧会。

会場となる尾道市立美術館では、「11ぴきのねこ」シリーズの著者として知られる馬場のぼる氏や、「長ぐつをはいたねこ」のハンス・フィッシャー氏など誰もが知っている絵本作家から、2010年代にデビューした新しい絵本作家まで、全15名が描いた250点にもおよぶ原画やスケッチ、制作資料などが展示されます。

＜出品作家＞ 加藤休ミ…