Hyaku-shaku Gaisho kôgeki no zu, Meiji period, dated 1895

The third version of this 1895 assault composition — Hyaku-shaku Gaisho kôgeki no zu — completes the series of impressions depicting the attack on a fortified emplacement during the First Sino-Japanese War's later campaigns. Variant impressions in sensō-e series frequently differ in the density of color application, the sharpness of block impressions as the woodblocks wore with use, and occasionally in the addition or removal of cartouche text or border elements. This third sheet may show either a later printing state with slightly degraded block lines and flatter color areas, or alternatively a compositional variant designed to complete a triptych sequence by presenting a distinct moment in the assault. Kiyochika's handling of smoke and fire across all three versions draws on his foundational kosen-ga research into artificial light sources, transposing the atmospheric investigations of his 1870s Tokyo meisho-e into the urgent commercial context of war reportage. Together the three sheets document both the event depicted and the industrial-scale publishing operation that produced woodblock prints as a form of mass media news during Japan's first modern overseas military campaign.