Sipa, a game in which players keep a woven rattan ball aloft using the feet, was one of the oldest traditional sports in the Philippines. It was played across the islands long before and throughout the colonial period and is regarded as a forerunner of the modern game of sepak takraw.
José Honorato Lozano documented this scene as part of his Tipos del País watercolors, a body of work produced in the mid-nineteenth century recording the customs, pastimes, and daily life of Philippine society. The Indios jugando sipa depicts Filipino men playing sipa, recording a traditional game and the dress of its players. Lozano worked primarily in Manila and produced illustrations that served as visual records of Philippine society for both local and foreign audiences. His work is considered among the most detailed and culturally specific visual documentation of the Philippines in the Spanish colonial period.
This print preserves a record of a traditional Filipino game played throughout the colonial period.
Available as a fine art print
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