For those of you in Tokyo, I know you’re just so bored and looking for things to do. After all, there’s not a sumo tournament for another few weeks yet. I’d like to point you in the direction of the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. They are hosting an exhibition of scores of famous art works from luminaries such as Hokusai and Hiroshige. You will undoubtedly recognize some of the works in the collage above. For the full flier, click here.
The works come from the massive Japanese art collection of the British Museum.
Why am I pointing out this exhibition? Art museums have nothing to do with sumo, right? Well, there is at least one work in the exhibit which does. This scroll by Kawamura Bunpo (a small part of which is visible in the image on the right) is a part of the exhibition and features the scene of a sumo tournament in Kyoto.
The work dates to around 1800 and is entitled, Kamogawa bugi zukan (鴨川武戯図巻), or the “Illustrated Handscroll of Warrior Games (Sumo) at the Kamo River.” So, that settles it. The exhibition is sumo related! Who needs a silly, mass-produced and overhyped wave when you’ve got this masterpiece?
Catch it from now until October 18th in Tokyo at the Metropolitan Art Museum. If you miss it there, you’re not out of luck. The exhibition will just pack up and move to the Nakanoshima Museum of Art in Osaka, starting on Halloween (10/31/2026) and running through 1/31/2027.
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That’s an amusing looking picture from the scroll! Thanks.
My random sumo interaction of the week came when I took my car in to get the oil changed and saw a poster on the wall for Akebono brakes. I ended up showing pictures of Akebono to the (older, Chinese) guys behind the counter, who were somewhat interested.
Yeah, I thought the picture looked like something from a modern manga style instead of an old scroll.
My biggest sumo regret is not having the chance to meet Akebono. He seemed to love sumo and sumo fans.
Nice piece of information, thanks a lot, Andy!
I‘m puzzled with the guy standing in front of the dohyo, looks like he‘s announcing the bouts with a microphone?? Artist Kawamura Bunpo, the japanese Jules Verne? Entertaining scene as well!
September banzuke got released. Man, Juryo looks fun… in a do-or-die career tournament for like half the rikishi.
Thanks, Andy. I was actually thinking about going to Tokyo in October and now I have even more reasons to do so.
Hi Andy. Is something wrong with the site? not gotten anything new since this one posted.
No, nothing is wrong. Just haven’t posted (been busy). I plan to post tonight or tomorrow to preview Aki.
Okay, just missing Leonid’s thoughts and guesses. He did pretty good in his guess (better than I did) but not seeing the breakdown has me a bit anxious for him.
Looking forward to the Aki basho and all the brilliant commentary.
Oh, if he’s not written anything, I usually just presume yeast has been particularly interesting lately. Given that I am a big fan of yeast and yeast-based products (esp. the distilled variety), I could see that happening fairly often.
Ahhhh! fermented beverages, am also a big fan.
Actually, he’s a geneticist. Pretty sure his lab studies the DNA of yeast.
I did pretty well, too – one of my best. But, ended up basically at the bottom of the rankings.. Turns out you need to resubmit your revised banzuke for it count – doh!?!?
Is lksumo not able to post his usual Banzuke guess and results?
I presume he’s been busy, too. I’m not sure how much his workload increases with the new school year but I could see it getting a bit hectic.