勝川春好画 大相撲力士「小野川・勢見山・八ヶ峯」|Three Sumō Wrestlers: Onogawa, Seimiyama, and Yatsugamine
ca. 1790s
Medium
Woodblock print; ink and color on paper
Dimensions
12 3/4 x 8 5/8 in. (32.4 x 21.9 cm)
Classification
Prints
Culture & Period
Japan · Edo period (1615–1868)
Department
Asian Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Henry L. Phillips Collection, Bequest of Henry L. Phillips, 1939
Accession Number
JP2909
Tags
Art Historical Context
This striking woodblock print by Katsukawa Shunkō captures three celebrated sumo wrestlers of the late eighteenth century—Onogawa, Seimiyama, and Yatsugamine—frozen in powerful poses that convey both strength and dignity. Created around the 1790s during Japan’s Edo period, the work belongs to the vibrant tradition of ukiyo-e, or “pictures of the floating world,” which brought images of popular entertainment, theater, and sports to a wide urban audience through affordable prints. Shunkō, a leading artist of the Katsukawa school, specialized in dynamic portraits of actors and athletes. His conf...
About the Artist
Katsukawa Shunkō
Katsukawa Shunkō I (1743–1812) was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist who pioneered the ōkubi-e (large-head) portrait format in kabuki actor prints and served as possibly the first student of Katsukawa Shunshō, the founder of the influential Katsukawa school. Born in 1743, Shunkō spent his entire life in Edo (modern Tokyo), working as both a painter and ukiyo-e printmaker specializing in yakusha-e (actor p...