In 1957, the Kyôgen dance-drama "Tôzumô", which had not been performed for 100 years, was revived by Nomura Manzô VI as part of a gala for the Ôkurakai (the Ôkura Society). Onoe Shôroku II was a member of the audience and he particularly enjoyed the performance. He pushed to make a Kabuki adaptation, which was premiered in January 1958 at the Shinbashi Enbujô [more details]. The production was supervised by the kyôgenshi Nomura Manzô VI and the leading musicians were the utakata Fujita Senzô VII, the hayashigata Sumita Chôzaburô III and the shamisen-player Kashiwa Senzaemon.

So far, "Tôzumô" was staged only 3 times between 1958 and 2012:

The play itself is set in Morokoshi at the ancient Chinese Tang imperial court and, when the curtain rises, the stage represents the magnificent palace of the Emperor.

A certain strong Japanese sumôtori, who has long been resident at the Chinese court to fulfill the Emperor's interest in sumô, feels a strong home-sickness, and asks the Emperor through the interpreter ^[1] (tsûji) for permission to return home to Japan. The Emperor consents readily to the wrestler's request, but insists on seeing the man's wrestling again before he leaves Morokoshi. Accordingly, the courtiers (kanjin) line up to take him on, but the sumôtori beats all of them easily.

The Emperor is a bit displeased at this, so he gets the wrestler very drunk with sake, and then takes him on himself. Then the Emperor makes the wrestler drink, and has a wrestling match with him. But even drunk, and even though the Emperor is protected by his minions, the sumôtori still wins, and is about to throw the Emperor to the ground when the Empress intervenes. The wrestler wins a valuable fan that the Emperor has unwisely promised to the victor, and is allowed to go home at last. The Emperor and Empress go out of the palace, accompanied by their retinue of courtiers (kanjin), court ladies (kanjo) and Chinese boys (karako). Still drunk, the sumôtori sees off the procession.

This summary would have not been possible without the help of Marion Hudson

This is an unusual matsubamemono due to the number of actors on stage: instead of the usual 3 to 5 performers, there were in January 1958 at the Shinbashi Enbujô the 4 leading actors (the wrestler, the emperor, the empress and the interpreter), 16 kanjin, 4 kanjo and 3 karako.

[1] "Except for the sumô wrestler and the "translator", they all speak "Chinese" - actually nonsense, and I spend some time speculating as to whether the actors have really learnt the nonsense, or if they make it up as they go along - although this could make picking up cues difficult!" (Marion Hudson, 2012)

"Tôzumô" (woodblock print for the Nô theater)