「日本万歳 百撰百笑」「分鳥 骨皮道人」

From 'Nihon Banzai! Hyakusen Hyakushō,' the subtitle 'Wakatori' (分鳥, 'Dividing the Birds' or 'Distributing Birds') suggests allegorical imagery using birds as a metaphor for Qing military assets, territories, or soldiers scattered in disarray. Bird-based allegory was a standard device in Meiji political satire, allowing pointed commentary through apparent indirection — birds in flight serving as shorthand for routed forces, while the act of 'dividing' evoked the carving up of Qing military capacity by Japanese forces. The print was produced under Kiyochika's pen name Kokkepidōjin (骨皮道人) and issued as a low-cost broadsheet to sustain public engagement with the 1894–95 conflict, deploying visual wit accessible to audiences familiar with both the war's progress and established satirical conventions.