A Sumo Wrestler

Kitagawa Tsukimaro (mentioned on object), 1819

De Sumo-worstelaar Shiganomine Otokichi, met zijn naam rechtsboven en op zijn kleding, staat klaar voor de ceremonie voorafgaande aan het gevecht. Met vier gedichten, één door Gobaian Azemono, twee door zijn huisvrouwen en één door zijn diener.

  • Artwork typeprint, surimono
  • Object numberRP-P-1995-296
  • Dimensionsheight 207 mm x width 182 mm
  • Physical characteristicsnishikie, with metallic pigments

Kitagawa Tsukimaro

A Sumo Wrestler

Japan, Japan, 1819

Provenance

…; purchased from the dealer C.P.J. van der Peet Japanese Prints, Amsterdam, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1993;1Coll. cat. Goslings 1999, p. 64, cat. no. 142 by whom donated to the museum, 1995

Object number: RP-P-1995-296

Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse

The artist

Biography

Kitagawa Tsukimaro (d. 1830) was a pupil of Kitagawa Utamaro, early name Kikumaro, changing the character for 'Kiku' in 1802 and taking the name Tsukimaro from 1804. He also used the art-names Bokutei, Kansetsu and Kansetsusai.

Entry

A sumo wrestler wearing a ceremonial apron inscribed with its name, standing by the straw ring marking the centre circle.

The Sumo Wrestler Shiganomine Otokichi, Shiga[no]mine Otokichi.

Bickford reads the name of the wrestler as Yotsugamine Otokichi (L. Bickford, Sumo and the Woodblock Print Masters, Tokyo 1944, 66). The print was apparently designed to celebrate the wrestler's promotion in III/1819. It was later reissued with a few changes, probably as soon as 1821: a title was added, A Series of Three on Sumo, Sumo sanbantsuzuki, with the emblem of the Taikogawa above; the straw forming the edge of the ring was not printed in gold, as here; four poems were replaced by three others, by Chikusotei Kazunori, Kei?do Chiyosumi and Dondontei [Wataru].

The same wrestler was also portrayed wearing a kimono, with two swords, and holding a pipe and smoking set in a commercially issued print by Katsukawa Shunei, (see Bickford, op. cit., 66).

Four poems by Gobaian Azemono; his housewife, Gobaian kafu Kagetsudo Rishu; another of Gobaian’s housewives; onajiku Sensentei Riyu me (female); and his (Gobaian’s) steward, onajiku shitsuji Baiso Momotori(?). The poems are all haiku, rare on Edo surimono. For the poets, cf. RP-P-1958-599.

Issued by the poets, 1819/III
Signature reading: Kansetsusai Tsukimaro zu

Literature

M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 491

Citation

M. Forrer, 2013, 'Kitagawa Tsukimaro, A Sumo Wrestler, Japan, 1819', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200382614

(accessed 9 December 2025 03:41:38).

Footnotes

  • 1Coll. cat. Goslings 1999, p. 64, cat. no. 142