Great victory of our troops after hard fighting in Pyöng-Yang

Kiyochika's print commemorating the Japanese military victory at Pyongyang, Korea, in September 1894, one of the decisive early engagements of the First Sino-Japanese War. The title emphasizes the hard fighting preceding the victory, lending the composition a narrative of earned triumph rather than effortless conquest. Kiyochika brings to this ground battle the atmospheric treatment developed in his Tokyo light pictures: artillery explosions function as the dramatic light sources that define form and cast shadow across figures and landscape. His depiction of the modern Meiji army in Western-style military dress—rifles, field uniforms, and European military formations—contrasts with the earlier ukiyo-e tradition of armored samurai combat, marking this as a new kind of Japanese warrior print attuned to the realities of industrial-age warfare.