Yokohama Sumo Wrestler Defeating a Foreigner

This second-month 1861 woodblock print (nishiki-e), held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (accession number 2007.49.253), depicts a Yokohama sumo wrestler in the act of defeating a foreigner in a wrestling match. The print belongs to a small but important subset of Yokohama-e that depicts physical or moral contests between Japanese and Western figures in which the Japanese party prevails, a genre that flourished briefly in the politically charged early months of the treaty-port era. Such prints expressed both genuine Edo enthusiasm for the spectacle of sumo and a defensive cultural assertion in the face of the perceived menace of the newly arrived foreign powers. Sumo wrestling, an indigenous Japanese sport with deep ritual and religious roots, was at the height of its mid-nineteenth-century popularity, and its champions were among the most famous celebrities of late-Edo society. The image of a sumo wrestler defeating a foreigner allowed Yoshifuji to celebrate native physical prowess in a moment of acute anxiety about foreign incursion. The print measures approximately 14.5 by 10 inches and is part of the Metropolitan Museum's collection of Yokohama-e, alongside other Yoshifuji prints from the same 1861 wave depicting Russian families, American outings, and Dutch travellers in the new treaty port.