UKIYO-E - The print is currently being professionally removed from the frame and will be online soon!

This print comes from a private collection and has been professionally framed. I will leave the frame around it for now to prevent damage. However, the print is sent without a frame.

Original Toyohara Kunichika (1835-1900) - Tattoo vs. Sumo - One Hundred Kabuki Rolls by Onoe Baiko, 1893.

Description:
In 1890, the playwright Takeshiba Kisui produced a Kabuki play based on the 'Me brigade riot' that took place between a group of firefighters and sumo wrestlers in 1805. The play premiered in August at the Shintomi Theater in Tokyo with actor Onoe Kikugorō V, also known as Onoe Baikō, playing the role of the firefighter Tatsugorō, who was a member of the me group.

Kunichika has depicted the actor wearing a stitched, multi-layered cotton jacket (sashiko hanten) that is decorated on the back with the character representing his firefighting team. Here he uses the long wooden pole with an iron hook (tobi guchi) as a weapon to fight his opponents. It shows the tattoo of a dragon (tatsu, hence its name), partially covered by its coat. Dragon tattoos were favored by firefighters because it was believed that dragons, as guardians of water, offered protection against fire.

The top cartouche shows the actor Nakamura Shikan IV, who played Tatsugorō's opponent, the sumo wrestler Yotsuguruma Daihachi.

Eiki's poem in the left part of the upper cartouche reads:

Kara shiba no - dry wood
taorete nochi no - fallen over by
nowaki kana - the strong wind

The poem could refer to firefighters tearing down wooden buildings to prevent the fire from spreading, and the strong wind could represent sumo wrestlers knocking over firefighters and fanning the fire.

Specifications:
Artist: Toyohara Kunichika
Sculptor: Watanabe Tsunejirō
Published by Fukuda Kumajirō and Gusokuya Kahei in 1893
Series: One Hundred Scrolls of Baiko (Baiko hyakushu no uchi)

Condition of the print: Excellent