Naval Commander Hirose Takeo

Naval Commander Hirose Takeo — who died in April 1904 attempting to blockade Port Arthur harbour by sinking a ship in the channel — was rapidly elevated to the status of a military saint in Japanese popular culture. Kiyochika's April 1904 portrait print, issued within weeks of his death, captures the public lionisation of Hirose: the commander who sacrificed his life for the mission was commemorated in songs, poems, and shrines. The portrait format gives ceremonial weight to a death that became the Russo-Japanese War's defining act of individual heroism.