「威海衛上陸進軍之図」

This triptych or single-sheet print depicts the Japanese military landing and advance at Weihaiwei (威海衛), a fortified naval base on the Shandong Peninsula in China, during the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–95. The fall of Weihaiwei in February 1895 and the destruction of the Beiyang Fleet were decisive engagements of the conflict. Kiyochika produced an extensive series of nishiki-e war prints during this period, working in a more explicitly propagandistic register than his earlier Tokyo landscapes. Such prints typically depicted infantry landings under fire, with figures arrayed across a panoramic composition suggesting tactical coordination and Japanese military discipline. The treatment of sea, beach, and distant fortifications in this print would have employed bold color contrasts and dramatic figure groupings rather than the subtle atmospheric gradations of his earlier kōsen-ga work, reflecting the different pictorial demands of war reportage prints.