Page 466 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

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Katsukawa Shun'ei (1762-1819) Keisai Eisen (1790-1848)
The Sumo Wrestlers Arauma and Courtesan
Kôgamine
c. 18205
c. 1800 Color woodblock print
7
Color woodblock print Approx. 75 x 25 (2972 x 9 /s)
Approx. 38 x 26 (15 x 10 74) Private Collection, New York
Tokyo National Museum
Illustrated page 392
• This image is a hybrid of the formal • A high-ranking courtesan (oirán)
double portrait and the depiction
completely fills this vertical diptych
of wrestlers in everyday clothes that of woodblock prints, designed to
Shunkó introduced (cat. 267). It 465
resemble the hanging-scroll format
appears that the match is over for the commonly used for Japanese paint-
day. Both wrestlers have just returned ings. The courtesan's outer robe has a
from the bath, their robes loosely
bold design of a dragon over swirling
draped over their corpulent bodies.
waves against a black background.
Kôgamine, in a green checkered robe, Underneath, her robes have an elegant
holds a pipe in one hand while he flower motif and a red lining. Her deep
dangles a tobacco pouch and pipe
green obi is decorated with auspicious
case in the other. Arauma's brightly bat and smaller butterfly motifs. A
colored ceremonial apron with a wave panoply of tortoiseshell hairpins and
design can be seen beneath his light
combs nearly overpowers her elabo-
cotton robe with torn banana leaf rate coiffure. Her face, with a long
motifs. JTC
straight nose and eyes that glare un-
forgivingly, reflects the "hard edged"
beauty preferred by ukiyoe artists and
270 their customers beginning in the 18205.
Katsukawa Shun'ei (1762-1819)
The Sumo Wrestlers Otsuna and Araiwa This image takes on a particular
at a Bordello significance for its inspiration of Vin-
cent van Gogh's Courtesan, an oil
1803
painting of 1887. This print was repro-
Color woodblock print
duced, in reverse, on the cover of a
Approx. 38 x 26 (15 x 10 74) special edition of the magazine Paris
Tokyo National Museum
illustré, entitled "Le Japon," issued in
May 1886. Van Gogh made a tracing
• This print represents sumo wrest- and grid sketch of the magazine cover
lers in everyday poses. Here the young that he transferred in enlarged form
wrestler Araiwa, in the rope motif to canvas.
robes on the right, boogies with the
older Ôtsuna. This print belongs to a Keisai Eisen, a man of many talents,
delightful set of images of sumo was not only a prolific painter and
wrestlers frolicking in the Yoshiwara designer of ukiyoe prints but also an
pleasure quarter, created by Shun'ei author of plays, popular novels, and
about 1803. The absence of a censor's historical essays. For a short while
seal and the use of a mica background Eisen even managed his own bordello
suggest that such images were private in the Nezu district of Edo, until it
commissions. In the same year burned down. He is best remembered,
Utamaro and Shun'ei collaborated on however, for his woodcut images of
a set of prints on a similar theme courtesans, often portrayed as we see
of wrestlers enjoying bordello parlor here with a certain hauteur. JTC
games, with Utamaro adding depic-
tions of Yoshiwara courtesans. JTC