「日本万歳 百撰百笑」「袋の鼠 骨皮道人」

The subtitle 'Fukuro no nezumi' (A Rat in a Bag, or A Cornered Rat) uses a Japanese idiomatic expression for a trapped, desperate situation with no avenue of escape. Within the Nihon Banzai: Hyakusen Hyakushō series, this print likely depicts Chinese soldiers or an officer surrounded by Japanese forces, their retreat cut off — the image of a rat struggling in a sealed sack providing the visual metaphor. The 'cornered rat' conceit appears frequently in military caricature traditions and would translate readily into the exaggerated postures and claustrophobic staging of this series. Kiyochika's woodblock compositions in this period tend to isolate a small number of figures against simple backgrounds, keeping the satirical message immediate. The flat color areas — typical of the series' multiple-block nishiki-e production — allow the figure's panicked posture to read clearly against a spare ground. Prints like this circulated widely during the war's final months as Japanese forces closed in on the Qing perimeter.