NEO MANEKINEKO -CRYPTO-

In 2021, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, when it was said to be difficult to "invite" people or money, Takahiro Koga presented NEO MANEKINEKO, an update of the maneki-neko.
It carries a strong wish: to reclaim people and money without succumbing to difficult present circumstances.
Then in 2022, he unveiled NEO MANEKINEKO – CRYPTO–, giving NEO MANEKINEKO a new concept.

Koga has long championed "ceramics for an age of gekokujō," making works for people who strive to rise, regardless of their origins.
So then, what is the greatest gekokujō of the 21st century? Could it not be the rise of blockchain and cryptocurrency? — This hypothesis is what motivated the making of this work.
Cryptocurrency was born from the concept of "creating a currency free of government control," and as a result has made millionaires of many people, regardless of background or education.
In 2021, NFTs also spread explosively through the art world, making them a keyword that truly captures the present moment.

The "Manekineko" (beckoning cat) in this work stands on the US dollar, a representative legal tender, and wears Bitcoin around its neck.
Yet what it holds in hand is a stablecoin — designed to track legal tender for price stability — hinting at a contradiction of its own.
NEO MANEKINEKO – CRYPTO– is a work that gives the maneki-neko a new concept, sharply capturing the current state of affairs surrounding cryptocurrency, and powerfully expressing one "face" of the present age.