Scene of the Land-based Battery Attack on Weihaiwei (Dai nigun Ikaiei haimen daikôgeki)

This battle print documents the Japanese land-based artillery bombardment of Weihaiwei during the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–95), identified in the subtitle as Dai nigun Ikaiei haimen daikōgeki. Weihaiwei, on the Shandong Peninsula, was the site of the decisive naval engagement in February 1895 in which the Beiyang Fleet was destroyed. Kiyochika was among the most prolific producers of Sino-Japanese War prints, and his battle compositions typically show cannon fire and muzzle flash rendered with the atmospheric drama of his kosen-ga technique—bursts of light against smoke-filled darkness. This type of reportage print supplied a Japanese public hungry for news from the front before photographic reproduction became standard in newspapers.