Purchased this Inro and netsuke from an antique mall in south st. Louis in 2012 and sold it last year on ebay. It was bid on aggressively and fetched a price far above the listing.
The netsuke i believe is a cat demon. I am no expert and was nicely suprised to find my intuition may have some validity. The design on the inro is of a plum tree in bloom.
Nekomate
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nekomata
or Bakeneko
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakeneko
