Kawazu Saburo Sukemichi wrestling Matano Goro Kagehisa, from the series "Illustrated Tale of the Soga Brothers (Soga monogatari zue)"

Kawazu Saburo Sukemichi wrestling Matano Goro Kagehisa, from the series "Illustrated Tale of the Soga Brothers (Soga monogatari zue)," is an 1838 woodblock print by Utagawa Hiroshige depicting one of the most famous wrestling matches in Japanese literary tradition. Kawazu Saburo Sukemichi, father of the Soga brothers Juro and Goro, defeats the renowned warrior Matano Goro Kagehisa in a hunting-ground sumo bout, an event that establishes Kawazu's prowess and indirectly sets in motion the later events that lead to his murder and his sons' famous vendetta. The Soga monogatari zue series allowed Hiroshige, an artist primarily celebrated for the landscape print, to engage with musha-e (warrior pictures), giving him an opportunity to treat heroic action within a setting that he could ground in his usual feel for landscape and weather. In this design, the two wrestlers grapple at center, their bodies described with confident, energetic outlines, while spectators in formal hunting dress flank the contest and a quietly observed background of woods, slopes, or banners locates the scene within an aristocratic gathering. This impression is held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. The print is a useful reminder that Edo ukiyo-e was a multi-genre system and that Hiroshige, like his contemporaries, moved easily between bijin, musha, and landscape, here adapting his characteristically calm spatial sense to the volatile subject of single combat.