4to, (270 × 190 mm). Folding colour woodcut frontispiece, 2 unnumbered leaves (title and blank), 42 pp., 2 unnumbered leaves (errata and blank), 4 colour woodcut plates, and numerous illustrations in the text. Printed on Japanese paper, in the original Japanese-style stitched binding with flexible boards and printed title label on the upper cover. Upper spine partly split; otherwise a very good copy.

Following Japan's capture of the German-controlled territory of Kiautschou, including Qingdao, in November 1914, approximately 4,700 German and Austro-Hungarian servicemen were transported to Japanese prisoner-of-war camps. In April 1917, prisoners from several camps on the island of Shikoku were transferred to Bandō, in present-day Naruto, Tokushima Prefecture. Under the command of Matsue Toyohisa, the camp developed an unusually active cultural life, encompassing concerts, theatre, lectures, exhibitions, sporting activities and publishing.

Hans Tittel's work is a particularly interesting product of this environment. Drawing upon Japanese sources, it introduces German readers to the history, conventions and techniques of sumo, a sport closely associated with Japanese cultural identity. Its illustrations depict wrestlers, wrestling techniques, equipment and ceremonial aspects of the sport. Among the prominent contemporary wrestlers represented are Ōnishiki Uichirō, Tochigiyama Moriya and Ōtori Tanigorō. The folding frontispiece, based on an earlier Japanese print, depicts an assembly of wrestlers and officials.

The book is also notable for its production. Bandō possessed both a lithographic establishment and a camp printing office, which issued newspapers, books, maps, programmes and other printed material. The prisoners employed reproduction techniques that permitted the production of elaborate multicoloured publications despite the limitations of captivity. Tittel's text was reproduced from manuscript, while its illustrations and Japanese-style binding reflect the visual and material traditions of the country in which it was produced.

The circumstances of its publication give the work a significance extending beyond sporting history. It represents an encounter with Japanese culture through the perspective of a German prisoner of war, and belongs to the distinctive body of printed material produced at Bandō between 1917 and 1919. The camp's cultural activities included the first performance in Japan of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, on 1 June 1918, an event that has subsequently attracted considerable historical attention.

A scarce survival of wartime printing in Japan, combining an early German-language account of sumo with an attractive series of colour illustrations.