高根山与一右ェ門　千田川吉五郎|The Sumo Wrestlers Takaneyama Yoichiemon and Sendagawa Kichigorō

Katsushika Hokusai

ca. 1790–93 · Woodblock print; ink and color on paper · Asian Art

Hokusai occasionally treated the sumo world in his prints. He returned to the subject briefly in the early 1790s after a decade-long absence. Here, the sumo wrestlers Wadagahara Jinshirō on the right and Kachōzan Gorōkichi on the left are locked together during a fight. They are depicted with thinner, more refined lines than in the artist's early sumo prints. The signature Shunrō ga ("painted by Shunrō") is one he used for a period before choosing his most familiar name, Hokusai.

Artist

Katsushika Hokusai

Date

ca. 1790–93

Medium

Woodblock print; ink and color on paper

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

The Francis Lathrop Collection, Purchase, Frederick C. Hewitt Fund, 1911