Page:The Surviving Works of Sharaku (1939).djvu/312

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restlers and umpires contemplating the child wonder Daidōzan Bungorō, who was entered as a student of wrestling in 1794.

The left-hand and right-hand sheets of this triptych show in each of the two, five well known wrestlers of the period whose names are given. Rumpf transcribes all ten of these names and it seems unnecessary to list them again here, though we would mention the fact that as one of the wrestlers depicted, Tanikaze Kajinosuke II, died in the first month of 1795 his presence in the print helps to place its date as before that time.

Japanese authorities on the history of wrestling have noted that all ten of the champions shown appeared in the programs of 1794, and have dated the print even more exactly as of the eleventh month of that year. The central sheet shows the child prodigy in the ring with two umpires gazing at him, and it may be assumed that the picture commemorates his entrance into the fraternity of the gentle art. Number 135 shows the boy again, but there alone.

We rephotograph from the Vignier-Inada Catalogue, number 251, an impression whose present location is unknown, and in this we follow the precedent established in Rumpf Numbers 39 to 41, and by Noguchi. The coloring has not been described.

Ōban. Gray ground. Signed: Sharaku.