Braving the Bitter Cold, Our Troops Set Up Camp at Yingkou

Produced in early 1895 as the First Sino-Japanese War entered its final phase, this triptych depicts Japanese troops encamped at the port city of Yingkou (Newchwang) in Manchuria during a bitter winter. Soldiers huddle around campfires, their breath visible in the frigid air, while supply wagons and artillery pieces stand snow-covered in the middle ground. Kiyochika's treatment of winter conditions in northern China — based on battlefield dispatches and illustrator reports rather than direct observation — became one of the defining visual chronicles of that campaign.