Unknown title

Catalog note / 解説

This dramatic design is of an engagement in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95. The war was, in effect, Japan's first modern war. The conflict was mainly about control of the Korean peninsular since it had long been regarded as "a dagger pointing at the heart of Japan". It was also the occasion of the last gasp of the art of Ukiyoe in woodblock printing (excepting for the smaller number of prints produced for the Russo Japanese War a few years later). Prints of the conflict were mostly in triptych format and enormously popular, they were apparently produced at a rate of about 10 designs a day! One can readily imagine the feverish activity amongst those engaged in their publication. It is fasc…