Sumō Wrestling Tournament (Kanzin ōsumō torikumi no zu) Possibly 1858

Editor: Here we have Utagawa Kunisada's "Sumō Wrestling Tournament," though the date is unknown. It's a woodblock print, and the sheer number of faces is quite overwhelming. How do you interpret this work? Curator: It's a sensory overload, isn't it? Kunisada crams in so much detail. The energy reminds me of being in a packed Tokyo train – a chaotic, yet somehow ordered, human landscape. Notice how he uses the red pillar and the crowd's faces to create a sense of depth, almost a pushing and pulling. It’s like he wants us to feel the heat and excitement. What do you think of the expressions? Editor: They're so varied! Some intense, others almost bored. It’s like he captured the whole spectrum of the audience. Curator: Exactly! The artist understood that a crowd isn't a monolith. What I've learned today is to appreciate the artist's ability to distill the energy of a live event into a single image, and to try and appreciate the chaos. Editor: I never thought of a woodblock print as capturing energy, but I see it now. Thanks!