Illustration of the Attack at Niuzhuang (Gyûsô kôgeki hôjin no zu)

This print documents the Japanese campaign against Niuzhuang (Yingkou), a port city on the Liao River taken by Japanese forces in March 1895 near the close of the First Sino-Japanese War. The subtitle Gyûsô kôgeki hôjin no zu translates roughly as 'illustration of the battle formation attacking Niuzhuang,' suggesting a broad compositional view of troop deployment rather than a close-quarters scene. Kiyochika's war prints of this period frequently adopt elevated vantage points to convey the scale of engagements, placing distant figures against open terrain and rendering atmospheric effects — muzzle flash, snow, overcast skies — using the graduated ink washes and color layering developed in his earlier urban views. The print participates in a larger visual project across Meiji printmaking of legitimizing Japan's military campaigns through imagery that drew on both Western battle illustration and the Japanese tradition of warrior prints (musha-e).