「日本万歳 百撰百笑」「清発明の危機 骨皮道人」

The subtitle 'Shin hatsumei no kiki' (The Crisis of Qing Invention or The Peril of Qing Innovation) mocks Chinese attempts to deploy modern military technology during the First Sino-Japanese War. The Qing forces' efforts to adopt Western firearms, artillery, and naval vessels had been widely criticized in the Japanese press as superficial modernization without genuine military reform. This print likely depicts a Qing weapon, device, or tactic backfiring — a caricature of technological pretension resulting in self-inflicted harm. The series Nihon Banzai: Hyakusen Hyakushō exploited these failures for satirical effect, contrasting implied Japanese competence with Qing ineptitude. The 'invention crisis' premise would lend itself to slapstick visual treatment: a cannon misfiring, a ship sinking, or machinery gone wrong. Kiyochika's draftsmanship in this series achieves comedy through bodily exaggeration rather than technical complexity, relying on bold silhouette and facial expression to convey incompetence.