「朝鮮大戦争の図」「海軍中軍医佐川君」「日本公使花房君」「領事近藤君」「陸軍工兵中尉堀本君」
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Source:
- Waseda University
- Image courtesy of
- Waseda University
Description
This documentary print records the 1882 Imo Incident (Jingō Incident), a military mutiny in Seoul in which Korean soldiers attacked Japanese personnel and the Japanese legation. The print names four individuals by rank and name: Navy medical officer Sagawa, Japanese minister Hanabusa Yoshitada, consul Kondō, and Army engineering lieutenant Horimoto Reizō — the latter killed during the incident. Kiyochika here works in the tradition of nishikie-shimbun illustrated news prints, using the format to convey both dramatic event and the identities of participants. The composition likely combines portrait vignettes with a scene of conflict or evacuation. Such prints served a public eager for visual information about Japan's expanding involvement in Korea during the early Meiji period.