Defying a Shower of Bullets, He, Alone, Opened Hyonmu Gate

This 1894 triptych commemorates one of the most celebrated acts of individual heroism in the First Sino-Japanese War: a lone Japanese soldier braving withering fire to force open the Hyonmu Gate of the fortress at Pyeongyang. Kiyochika renders the scene as a storm of smoke, muzzle flash, and flying debris — the single figure at the gate barely visible through the chaos. The composition, spanning three ōban sheets, was among many propaganda triptychs Kiyochika produced for the Osaka publisher Akiyama during the 1894–95 campaign.