Actors and sumo wrestlers
(1884)
- Medium
- colour woodblock print on paper
- Measurements
- (71.0 × 72.0 cm)
- Place/s of Execution
- Japan
- Department
- Asian Art
- Credit Line
- Purchased with funds donated by Cecilie Hall, 2024
- Gallery location
- Level 1, NGV International
- About this work
-
This large sugoroku board game combines the two popular entertainment activities of Japan, kabuki theatre and sumo wrestling. In the shape of a dohyō sumo wrestling ring, the image depicts eighteen wrestlers in a circle wearing decorative keshō mawashi costume and performing the dohyo-iri ring-entry ceremony. It also includes other important figures of a sumo tournament, two referees at the top and bottom, and four judges in each corner. Sugoroku, literally meaning ‘double six’, was a popular board game played using dice and counters. This rare example retains the envelope into which it was folded and sold.