Battle at Jinzhoucheng on the Road to Port Arthur (Ryojun michi Kinshûjô sen)

This print documents the Japanese assault on Jinzhoucheng (Kinshūjō), a fortified city on the Liaodong Peninsula that stood on the primary land route to Port Arthur (Ryojun) during the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895. The fall of Jinzhou was a significant early engagement in the peninsula campaign, and Kiyochika's print would have reached the Japanese public while the war was still in progress. Battle prints of this period followed a conventional vocabulary: clouds of gunsmoke billowing across the middle ground, Japanese troops in Meiji-era military uniforms advancing with rifles and bayonets, and enemy fortifications visible in the background or under direct assault. Kiyochika applies his atmospheric training to the particulate matter of battlefield smoke, using it to create depth and drama in ways that conventional flat ukiyo-e battle imagery could not achieve. The large oban format and rapid production schedule of wartime prints are typical of this series.