Night Patrol in the Snow near Niu-chuang (Gyûsô fukin setsuya no sekkô), Meiji period,

This oban-format woodblock print depicts a Japanese military patrol moving through snow-covered terrain near Niu-chuang (present-day Yingkou, Liaoning), a Manchurian port city captured by Japanese forces in March 1895 during the First Sino-Japanese War. The title Gyûsô fukin setsuya no sekkô identifies both the location and the nocturnal scouting mission. Kiyochika applies his characteristic kosen-ga technique here in a wartime context: moonlight or lantern glow illuminates falling or settled snow, casting soldiers as silhouettes against a luminous ground. The composition likely employs a shallow foreground with figures moving laterally across the picture plane, a format consistent with his war print series. Flat areas of pale blue-grey washi contrast with ink-heavy shadows to evoke cold, silence, and military tension. This print belongs to Kiyochika's extensive documentation of the Sino-Japanese War through the woodblock medium, which he pursued concurrently with his earlier Tokyo light-pictures.