Juno is a prolific Japanese artist who specializes in digital cat illustrations using line drawings paired with light colors. Her artwork is sold on prints, calendars, stickers and stationery under her brand Mofu_sand. Mofu–mofu in Japanese means something that is soft and fluffy (like a rabbit or cat’s fur) and indeed, other cute animals besides cats also show up from time to time. Check out some of her work below.
Bursting on the scene around mid-2018, she has already made quite an impact and has a good-sized following on Instagram (276k followers) and Pinterest, including us here at Cats&Collectibles.
With roughly an Instagram post each day for the past two and a half years, she is currently at 893 posts. So basically, we’re just highlighting a fraction of her portfolio, but you get the idea.
Some artist’s brands that we’ve previously covered here like Tabineko and Pottering Cat are also in the kawaii (cute) prints and stationery genre, but they all bring a different flavor to the table. Tabineko’s focus is on roaming Japanese landscapes and Pottering Cat shows the cats playing about and doing fun activities. Mofu_sand has a more feminine touch with emphasis on the kittens (and other animals) themselves being extremely adorable.
Unfortunately, I can’t read Japanese and so was unable to find much more info on Juno, but we will reach out to her and hope for a reply in order to publish a follow-up interview in the near future.
Until then, you can enjoy her work and support her official store at the links provided below. Her products are reasonably priced for an indie creator but sourcing them outside of Japan can be a challenge.
https://www.instagram.com/mofu_sand/
One major drawback is that their official Booth store only ships within Japan. Booth is a service by the online artist community Pixiv and they mostly take preorders on new designs and print-on-demand, and many Japanese artists are signed on to this platform exclusively.
Of course, you can always purchase via third party service providers like WhiteRabbit Express and Tenso but that will incur a slightly higher cost. Personally, I have used Tenso for some time to purchase Japanese apparel and cat collectibles. My own opinion is that the costs are usually prohibitive unless you are buying in bulk, but then you might be subject to your local tax laws which is a whole ‘nother story.
However, if you really like Mofu_sand, don’t let this put you off. The fact that these third party services are thriving just shows the quality and demand for Japanese made products. Hopefully, they will appoint some global resellers in the US and the rest of the world soon. Meanwhile, the scarcity outside of Japan also ups the desirability factor even more.
Just don’t shop for them online when you’re supposed to be working from home…
Mofu_sand is more proof that the Japanese are the masters of cute. As they say (or don’t say 🤣), Resistance Is Mofutile!
Let us know what you think in the comments and if you know any other alternative ways to get your hands on the official merchandise without paying a fortune.
