The Sumo Wrestlers Takaneyama Yoichiemon and Sendagawa Kichigorō

The Sumo Wrestlers Takaneyama Yoichiemon and Sendagawa Kichigorō

Katsushika Hokusai

An item at Metropolitan Museum of 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.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Sumo Wrestlers Takaneyama Yoichiemon and Sendagawa KichigorōThe Sumo Wrestlers Takaneyama Yoichiemon and Sendagawa KichigorōThe Sumo Wrestlers Takaneyama Yoichiemon and Sendagawa KichigorōThe Sumo Wrestlers Takaneyama Yoichiemon and Sendagawa KichigorōThe Sumo Wrestlers Takaneyama Yoichiemon and Sendagawa Kichigorō

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.