Lives of Sumō Wrestlers of Great Japan (Dai Nihon rikishi retsuden)

A color ōban woodblock print of 1884 in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, this print from Lives of Sumō Wrestlers of Great Japan (Dai Nihon rikishi retsuden) belongs to one of Kuniaki II's signature Meiji-era sumō series. The series — its title invoking the rikishi retsuden ("wrestler chronicles") tradition of biographical sumō literature that descended from the eighteenth century — pictures successive leading wrestlers of the Meiji generation alongside biographical inscriptions identifying their rank, province, and notable tournament victories. The 1880s were a recuperative decade for the sumō world: after the Meiji Restoration of 1868 had threatened the institution as a feudal anachronism, the sport's revival under imperial patronage in the 1870s and 1880s restored its national standing, and the Tokyo sumō association established its first permanent venue at Eko-in in 1869. Kuniaki II's series belongs to the popular visual culture that accompanied this revival; alongside his single-figure sumō portraits, the prints document the leading wrestlers, the tournament conventions, and the renewed prestige of the sport during the middle Meiji years.