Actors and sumo wrestlers
(1884)
Medium
colour woodblock print on paper
Measurements
(71.0 × 72.0 cm)
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased with funds donated by Cecilie Hall, 2024
Gallery location
Not on display
About this work
This large sugoroku board game combines the two popular entertainment activities of Japan, kabuki theatre and sumo wrestling. In the shape of a dohyō sumo wrestling ring, the image depicts eighteen wrestlers in a circle wearing decorative keshō mawashi costume and performing the dohyo-iri ring-entry ceremony. It also includes other important figures of a sumo tournament, two referees at the top and bottom, and four judges in each corner. Sugoroku, literally meaning ‘double six’, was a popular board game played using dice and counters. This rare example retains the envelope into which it was folded and sold.