Published shortly before his death in 1858, Wrestling Matches between Mountains and Seas is one of Hiroshige’s final sets. The concept was to depict mountains along the shore, with the contrast between land and sea compared to a dynamic bout between two sumo wrestlers. Originally intended to total 140 prints, comprising 70 pairs of landscapes and seascapes for each of Japan’s seventy provinces, only 10 pairs of the series came to be published with ten prints of mountains and ten prints of harbours. A gourd-shaped fan (gunbai uchiwa) used by referees for sumo matches is used as the title cartouche for the series.

For a similar impression in the collection of The British Museum, London, museum no. 1915,0823,0.152.14, go to: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_1915-0823-0-152-14