「日本万歳 百撰百笑」「御注進御注進 骨皮道人」
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Source:
- Waseda University
- Image courtesy of
- Waseda University
Description
This print shares the caption 'Report! Report!' with a companion sheet in the Nippon Banzai: Hyakusen Hyakushō series, indicating Kiyochika revisited the same satirical scenario — a panicked Chinese messenger delivering news of defeat — in more than one composition. Published under the pen name Honekawa Dōjin during the First Sino-Japanese War, the two variants likely differ in setting, the identity or rank of the messenger figure, or the battlefield context implied. The comic premise rests on the Chinese military's serial inability to deliver anything other than bad news upward through its command structure, a theme running throughout the series. Kiyochika's caricature technique in these prints combined exaggerated facial expression with theatrical gesture, compressing dramatic narrative into a single woodblock sheet. These were printed on ōban format sheets and distributed as affordable popular entertainment during the war.