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Tanikaze Kajinosuke

Katsukawa Shunshō

1784

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Romanticism 18th Century Portrait

Dominant colour

Tanikaze Kajinosuke is a 1784 by Katsukawa Shunshō, a Romanticism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.

Who painted this?: Katsukawa Shunshō
When & what style?: 1784 · Romanticism
Where can I see it?: Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

This painting shows a strong man walking down an avenue. He's dressed in traditional Japanese clothes. The artist included fans watching him from behind. The man in the painting is Tanikaze Kajinosuke, a famous sumo wrestler. He was known for his strength and skill in the ring. To learn more about this style of art, look up the work of artist Katsukawa Shunshō.

The story of this work

Overview

Tanikaze Kajinosuke (1750–1795) was an extraordinary champion sumo wrestler who hailed from what is now Sendai, a city in northern Japan. Even at his death from influenza at age 44, he was dominating the ring and was one of the first to be given sumo’s highest rank, yokozuna (横綱), during his lifetime. In this print, Katsukawa Shunshō showed him as he may have appeared strolling the avenue, spied by his fans.

Read the full account in the museum source.