Portrait of the Sumō Wrestler Aioi Matsugorō
相生松五郎之図
- Date:
- 1869
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print (nishiki-e) with lacquer-printed kimono detail
- Source:
- Hara Shobō
相生松五郎之図
This 1869 color woodblock print by Utagawa Kuniteru II, recorded in the Hara Shobō dealer catalogue (item 17296_3), depicts a portrait of the sumō wrestler Aioi Matsugorō with the distinctive technical feature of lacquer-printed detail (urushi-zuri) on the wrestler's kimono. The lacquer-printing technique — in which areas of the kimono pattern were overprinted with a glossy black lacquer to create a reflective surface effect — was a specialized technical refinement developed in the late-Edo print industry and applied to prestige impressions of named wrestlers, popular actors, and other high-status subjects whose patrons paid premium prices for technically elaborate impressions.
Aioi Matsugorō, who held the makuuchi (top-division) rank during the early Meiji period, was among the leading wrestlers documented in Kuniteru II's sumo-e corpus. The 1869 publication date places the print at the cusp of the Meiji period, when the sumō-e industry continued the Edo conventions of named-wrestler portraiture even as the broader political and social context was being transformed by the imperial restoration of the previous year.
The Hara Shobō catalogue records the print in 'fine impression, good condition' with the lacquer-printed detail preserved despite age. The condition note 'a few minute wormholes' is characteristic of late-Edo and early-Meiji impressions that have survived in private collections rather than in museum holdings, and the print's appearance in the Hara Shobō dealer record places it within the broader commerce of nineteenth-century Japanese prints that continued through the twentieth century. Kuniteru II's sumo-portrait corpus, of which this 1869 Aioi Matsugorō impression is a documented example, constitutes one of the principal visual records of the transitional Meiji sumō world.
Meiji period, late 19th century
Color woodblock print (nishiki-e), ōban triptych
東京汐留を通る蒸気機関車
1872
Color woodblock print (nishiki-e), ōban triptych
日本橋大山詣之図
mid-Meiji, ca. 1872
Color woodblock print (nishiki-e), ōban triptych
海運橋三井組ハウス第一国立銀行真景之図
1872
Color woodblock print (nishiki-e), ōban triptych
Portrait of the Sumō Wrestler Aioi Matsugorō (相生松五郎之図) was created by Utagawa Kuniteru II (二代歌川国輝) in 1869.
Portrait of the Sumō Wrestler Aioi Matsugorō depicts sumo.
