Russo-Japanese Naval Battle at the Entrance of Inchon: The Great Victory of the Japanese Navy--BANZAI! (Nichiro Jinsenkô kaisen dai Nihon kaigundaishôri Banzai)

This large-format naval battle print commemorates the engagement at Incheon (Chemulpo) on February 9, 1904, one of the opening battles of the Russo-Japanese War, in which Japanese forces sank or neutralized the Russian cruiser Varyag and the gunboat Koreets. The full title, Nichiro Jinsenkô kaisen dai Nihon kaigundaishôri Banzai, frames the scene explicitly as a celebration of Japanese naval supremacy. Battle prints of this era were commonly produced as oban triptychs to accommodate the panoramic sweep of sea combat — multiple ships, cannon fire, billowing smoke, and churning water filling the expanded horizontal field. Kiyochika applies his characteristic interest in light effects to the explosive bursts of naval ordnance, contrasting the dark silhouettes of warships against fire-lit smoke and sea spray. These prints served a patriotic function, reinforcing public confidence in Japan's modernized military as it confronted a major European power.