Kabayama, the Chief of Naval Staff, Attacking Enemy Ships from onboard Saikyomaru (Kabayama gunreibucho Saikyomaru o motte tekikan ni ataru)

This 1894 oban triptych, held by the Art Institute of Chicago, is a sensō-e (war print) depicting Vice-Admiral Kabayama Sukenori, Chief of the Naval General Staff, directing an engagement against Chinese warships from the deck of the converted liner Saikyōmaru during the First Sino-Japanese War. The Saikyōmaru, a civilian Nippon Yusen Kaisha steamer pressed into service, found itself in close combat at the Battle of the Yalu River on 17 September 1894, an action that became one of the most celebrated episodes of the war in the Japanese press. Adachi Ginkō stages the scene at maximum dramatic effect: Kabayama stands in white uniform on the bridge while officers signal, gunners fire, and the enemy fleet looms in clouds of smoke and shellfire on the horizon. The triptych is an exemplary sensō-e in its construction of modern naval combat as a tableau of disciplined heroism, with identifiable senior officers placed at the center of the composition and the Western-style ship and uniforms rendered with documentary specificity. The print belongs to the wave of war prints rushed to market in late 1894 and early 1895, when public appetite for war reportage briefly revived the commercial fortunes of ukiyo-e.