Night attack by our armed forces against the Chinese camp at Phyong-Yang —

This sensō-e by Kobayashi Kiyochika (1847–1915) depicts the night assault by Japanese forces on the Chinese encampment at Pyongyang on September 15–16, 1894, one of the decisive engagements of the First Sino-Japanese War. The Japanese First Army under Field Marshal Yamagata Aritomo launched a coordinated attack that resulted in the capture of the city and the rout of Qing forces. Kiyochika's nocturnal battle prints are among his most compositionally effective work, using muzzle flash, fire, and the glow of burning structures to illuminate figures and terrain against a dark sky — translating his earlier interest in artificial light and chiaroscuro into a martial context. Silhouetted figures advancing through smoke, rifle fire cutting through darkness, and the distant conflagration of a burning encampment providing an orange horizon are characteristic elements of this approach. The print was issued as part of the surge of sensō-e production that followed Japanese battlefield dispatches during the autumn 1894 campaign.