Sekitori Senryo Nobori

Data

Sekitori Senryo Nobori
Senshafuda print   (Part of the set: Kabuki-related Senshafuda Set)

Shoshu
Unknown


20.50 cm
17.00 cm

2020
00161-015
https://mokuhankan.com/collection/index.php?id_for_display=00161-015

Print is Public Domain; Photography is:   Creative Commons License

Description

Otowa, the wife of the sumo wrestler Inagawa Jirokichi, is pictured here in the Inagawa Uchi ("at Inagawa's home") scene of Act II of Sekitori Senryo Nobori ("The Rise of the 1000-ryô Wrestler" or "The Sumo Wrestler's Banner"). The onnagata actor depicted is (Mimasu?) Gennosuke.

In Sekitori Senryo Nobori, the sumo wrestler Inagawa is placed in a difficult position when he is informed he must pay for the freedom of the courtesan Nishikigi in the place of his patron, as another customer is about to pay instead. Inagawa does not have the money, but is told by his wrestler colleague Tetsugatake that the other customer is Tetsugatake's patron. Inagawa and Tetsugatake discover that they are scheduled to compete against each other the next day, and Tetsugatake tells Inagawa that if Inagawa lets him win, Tetsugatake will try to cancel his patron's payment. Inagawa is stuck between the two options - to fulfil his debt to his patron and lose the bout on purpose, or to participate in the match with honour and thus be disloyal to his patron? He prepares to lose on purpose, but halfway through the bout finds out that an unknown patron has gifted him enough money to pay back the debt. Overcome with relief and renewed power, he beats Tetsugatake, and, on his way home, finds out that his own wife, Otowa, has sold herself to a teahouse-brothel so that her husband could conduct himself with honour and prove his loyalty to his patron.

The lower panel is decorated with a gunbai, a type of fan used by referees in sumo matches illustrated with the words 天下泰平 (tenka taihei, "Peace reigns in the land"), and a banner with the names of the protagonist wrestlers Inagawa and Tetsugatake.

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