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Description
10" (25 cm.) Depicting a corpulent sumo wrester with body, head, lower arms and legs of a toso wood composite with pigmented gofun treatment, inset glass eyes, painted details including beard, chest and belly hair, silk fiber hair, large belly and chest realistically rendered with folds and creases, belly button, nipples, and contoured musculature, hands with painted nail details, padded silk crepe upper arms, wearing a red velvet kesho-mawashi ceremonial apron, with couched thread bordering and long fringes. Hair replaced, loss of pigment, light wear to textile. Early Meiji Period, Late 19th century,Tokyo-made. Exhibited at the Japan Society (1996) and published in Ningyo: The Art of the Human Figure, page 65. Sumo wrestling evolved over centuries from shrine ritual to an iconic national sport followed the world over. Beginning in the Edo era, especially popular wrestlers were treated like stars and were depicted in woodblock prints and ningyo alike. Ningyo depicting sumo wrestlers, both specific and generic, can be found in every media, from clay to gosho to isho and mitsuore. As a mitsuore-ningyo, sumo wrestlers were particular amusing and engaging as individuals could move the ningyo through the various poses of the actual sumo bout.