Hayatake Torakichi from Osaka: Spinning Tops in Ryogoku

This 1857 ōban woodblock print, titled "Hayatake Torakichi from Osaka: Spinning Tops in Ryōgoku" and held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (accession number 2009.434.4), depicts the Osaka acrobat Hayatake Torakichi performing his signature top-spinning act at the Ryōgoku entertainment district in Edo. Ryōgoku, on the banks of the Sumida River, was the great variety-show district of late-Edo Edo, home to misemono (sideshow) booths, sumo arenas, and travelling performance troupes, and Torakichi's appearance there in the summer of 1857 drew enormous crowds and became a celebrated cultural event. Yoshiharu's print, in the vertical ōban format (36.2 by 25.7 cm), captures the acrobat mid-performance with multiple spinning tops balanced on various props, a subject perfectly suited to the visual energy of late-Utagawa print design. The Met identifies this as one of a related group of four Yoshiharu Torakichi prints acquired together in 2009; together they constitute one of the most coherent surviving documentary sequences of an Edo touring performance. The print is in the public domain and is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Department of Asian Art.