In the Edo period, the common people came to the fore as bearers of new culture; it was a time when, under the isolationist foreign policy, forms of culture evolved that were unique to Japan. Sumo, kabuki, and other kinds of entertainment grew in popularity, and celebrated stars were depicted in ukiyo-e.

The techniques of nishiki-e—a form of multi-colored woodblock printing—were established in 1765. They enabled the production of artworks with greater detail, and led to dramatic changes in how human expressions were depicted. For the common people, nishiki-e were affordable artworks, much in the same way that bromide prints were for Japanese in the middle and latter parts of twentieth century.

Although sumo is a national sport today, originally it was familiar only among the ruling classes—as part of religious ceremonies at the imperial court, for example, or as a method of training for samurai. It became a popular form of entertainment among the masses in the Edo period, when a system of regular tournaments contested by wrestlers from across Japan was created, so ushering in the golden age of sumo.

For commercial reasons, ukiyo-e rejected realistic portrayals, in part likely due to the aesthetic ideals that prevailed at the time.

This presentation looks at depictions of sumo wrestlers in sumo-e (ukiyo-e that take sumo as their subject), and seeks to understand what the common people expected of sumo wrestlers; in so doing, it examines more broadly the role played by sumo in the Edo period.