Kemari, a Chikanobu Triptych, 1897

Three sheets make one wide court, and one ball hangs in the air above it.

Work: woodblock triptych
Maker: Toyohara Chikanobu
Date: 1897
Era: The Victorian game · 1870–1900
Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art · via Wikimedia Commons

Twelve centuries of keeping one ball in the air.

Format

The full-resolution scan, colour-managed to the source — yours to print, study, and explore.

Size

$29.00

The story

Three sheets set side by side make one wide picture: a triptych by Toyohara Chikanobu, published in 1897, of kemari, the football of the old Japanese court. Chikanobu, who lived from 1838 to 1912, was regarded as one of the most prolific woodblock artists of the Meiji era. His subject was already very old when he drew it. Records place games of kemari in May 701, so by the year this was printed the game had been played for nearly twelve centuries. Its rule is cooperation: everyone keeps one ball aloft and no one may use the hands. The Metropolitan Museum of Art gave this scan to Wikimedia Commons.

See it on your wall

The piece, in the room it was made for

Kemari, a Chikanobu Triptych, 1897, printed large and framed — in the den, the club bar, the supporters’ bar. Every edition ships ready to become the piece the room is built around.

Kemari, a Chikanobu Triptych, 1897 framed on the wall

About this reproduction

A reproduction of woodblock triptych — Toyohara Chikanobu, 1897 — from the copy held by The Metropolitan Museum of Art · via Wikimedia Commons. The source. The work was published before 1931 and is public-domain verified.
Printed faithful to that source scan — restore honestly, disclose always. We do not re-colour it, complete it, or interpret it; the piece you receive is the image as it survives, halftone grain honored as history, not damage.
Printed to order on museum-grade cotton-rag stock with pigment inks — the pairing is rated 100+ years.
Colour-managed to the source; the tone of the paper and the ink is the period’s, not ours.
Ships in 5–10 business days, rolled in a heavy-wall tube (framed editions ship flat-packed).
If it arrives less than perfect, we reprint or refund — your choice.

Why our pieces cost more than a poster: a poster is a mass run on wood-pulp stock, colour-corrected to whatever flattered the press that day. This is one sheet, pulled for you, at a size where the maker’s hand is visible — the linework, the halftone grain, the lettering — on materials made to outlast their owner.

From the same collection