Okitsu, the Okitsu River

The artwork

Two sumo wrestlers cross the river without getting wet: one sits on a horse, the other in a litter, and the bearers struggle through the water under their weight. You receive it printed on handmade Amalfi paper, in a handmade frame.

• The blue of the river, the grey of the rock and the bright colours of the robes.
• A scene full of humour, which brings cheer to a study or an attic room.
• A gift for anyone who loves sport, funny stories and Japan.

It belongs to the Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō, the series that made Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), the best loved landscape artist of Japan, famous, published around 1833-1834 by the publisher Hōeidō. The Tōkaidō was the great road that linked Edo, today's Tokyo, with Kyoto, with fifty-three post stations where travellers stopped. Okitsu was one of them, near the sea, which you can see in the distance.

Many rivers on the Tōkaidō had no bridges, and travellers had themselves carried to the other bank by local men, on their shoulders, in a litter or on horseback. Hiroshige picks the heaviest customers imaginable: two sumo champions, the traditional Japanese wrestling in which you win by pushing your opponent out of the ring or knocking him down. The horse lowers its head, the bearers dig their feet into the current, and the whole joke lies in the contrast between the bulk of the wrestlers and the effort of those carrying them. Our reproduction comes from the impression in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

In a study or an attic room it is a picture that makes you smile. A gift for anyone who loves sport and Japan.

Unique quality material

Print on handmade Amalfi paper
Sheet size: 29 x 42 cm (11.4 x 16.5 in)
With frame: 31 x 44 cm (12.2 x 17.3 in)
Material: artwork printed on very fine handmade Amalfi paper with deckled edges
Frame: dark brown with gold fillet, handmade, with glass