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last updated: |
03/22/20 |
Sumō prints Utagawa Kunisada
go to: | Kunisada signed prints |
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In 1994, Lawrence Bickford’s “Sumo and the Woodblock Print Masters” was published. This book remains the most comprehensive history of the representation of Sumō in Japanese woodblock prints. For about 50 years, during the period circa 1775-1825, Sumō prints were designed nearly exclusively by Katsukawa School graphic artists. The dominance of their school in this genre ended in the second half of the 1820’s. For the rest of the Edō era and during the Meiji period, prints of this type were executed exclusively by artists of the Utagawa school. During the last four decades of the Edō era, the most productive of all was Utagawa Kunisada. Bickford states in his book that around 300 Sumō prints by Kunisada are known. Meanwhile, the ‘Kunisada Project’ lists about 740 (March 2020). Furthermore, I believe that some hundreds of his Sumō prints are still missing.
Bickford dates some prints depicting two wrestlers in a
bout, and signed ‘Kōchōrō Kunisada’, to the year 1828. He suggests that
these were Kunisada’s first true Sumō prints, and that the few examples of
earlier works were all designs of legendary Sumō bouts. Therefore those
precedents are in fact musha-e, and not true Sumō prints. The wrestlers (sumōtori) are represented as figure portraits, most of them wearing wrestling belts (mawashi) in the Sumō arena (dohyō). Only about 10 percent of the prints depict them in street attire. By request of the publishers, Kunisada first depicted exclusively wrestlers belonging to the makuuchi league (senior league). Then from around 1840 on, probably in connection with the Tenpō reforms, he also depicted wrestlers of the jūryō league (junior league). On triptychs not depicting the dohyōiri (entering the ring ceremony), wrestlers from the ‘stables’ (heya) are also shown, whose rank was below the two highest leagues of professional Sumō. In certain prints which depict yokozuna during their individual dohyōiri, these low-ranked attendants, belonging to the heya of the yokozuna, also appear. Until the end of the Edō era, two great Sumō tournaments were held each year in Edō. Those tournaments, called ‘kanjin ōzumō’, had already been allowed by the government, since the early 18th century, for the purpose of raising funds for shrines and temples. By the beginning of the 19th century, these tournaments had become a lucrative business, and the receipts began to be taken by the promoters and by the sumōtori themselves. The publishers of woodblock prints wanted to participate in the great success of the Sumō tournaments and ordered the graphic designers to sketch the heroes of the arena on paper with the intent of selling them profitable to the audience.
In
these prints, the dohyōiri are separated into the East Division (higashi
no kata), and West Division (nishi no kata), in some cases both together
in one print composition. The wrestlers themselves are ordered by the rank
given in ranking lists (banzuke) which were updated after each tournament.
Other subjects include famous Sumō bouts, the referees (gyōji), the
coaches (toshiyori) and the sumōtori in leisure time strolling or relaxing. Nearly half of all Kunisada’s sumō prints are from the five years after the Tenpō reforms, during which time the content of artworks was strictly regulated by the governmental authorities. The representation of kabuki actors was forbidden. In the genre of bijin-ga (beautiful woman prints), the representation of 'courtesans' (actually often involuntary inhabitants of brothels) was also banned. Regular portraits of women in more innocuous activities were still permitted, as long as the women were not identifed by name. Violation of the regulations was severely punished. Kabuki theatre audiences were accustomed to bringing home portraits of their idols from the theatre, where the visit could be afforded even by poorer people. Meanwhile the most glamorous women of the brothels could only be dreamed about secretly by most people, and thus their fantasy had been provided in another way in paper form. Publishers, graphic designers, woodcutters, and other craftsmen (the paper, woodblock and color producers) were confounded by the restriction of their two most popular subjects, and needed sales volume.
The great sumō tournaments, and all business connected to
them, seem to have been the only areas of entertainment during those years
which did not suffer much under governmental restrictions. Therefore for
the confounded craftsmen, the most convenient solution was to turn to an
increased production of representations of the idols of the sumō arena.
Printing blocks were sometimes re-used by their publishers, especially for kabuki prints. Similarly, some printing blocks for sumō-e were reused for portraits of new wrestlers who had recently joined the leagues. In that case, the heads of the wrestlers and the name cartouches were re-cut. Sometimes only the names were changed. I found an example of a print which was used, with only minor changes, for four different wrestlers. On prints showing the dohyōiri, sometimes only the name cartouches were re-ordered according to the new banzuke, while the main wrestlers depicted as the focus of the print stayed the same. In one case, a composition of a ‘kanjin ōzumō’ bears the date seal of 2/1853, but in fact shows the names of the banzuke from 1854. I have not yet found the actual print corresponding to the year 1853. The exact same print also exists in a version with the banzuke from 1865 (!) with a completion next to Kunisada’s signature added by his pupil Kuniteru. The date seal of the print is still 2/1853. I find only one example in which one publisher sold the printing blocks to another. All new editions of sumō-e bear except from this one the same publisher seal as the original print, whereas reissuing often took place with a new publisher seal. The trade of used wood blocks for these prints seems to have occurred more rarely than in other genres of ukiyo-e.
Link: https://sumodb.sumogames.de/
Statistics (March 2020): All sumō-e:
Kunisada
signed prints: Toyokuni
signed prints:
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Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III) - Sumō prints