Sumo match

Sumo wrestling—Japan's oldest ritual sport, with roots in Shinto ceremony—provided Gekko with a subject that combined massive human physicality with the aesthetics of ritual performance. The two wrestlers in the moment of struggle, their bodies in the interlocked postures of technical grappling, gave him a dynamic composition uncommon in his bijin-ga-heavy output. The sumo match depicted the opposite of feminine refinement: pure muscular force organized by strict formal rules.