The Russians retreat north to land of snow and ice where Japanese cannot follow

A propagandistic woodblock print from Kiyochika's extensive output during the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05), depicting Russian forces in retreat toward the frozen northern territories beyond the front. Kiyochika produced dozens of war prints for publishers eager to capitalize on patriotic sentiment, and this composition belongs to a subset that emphasizes Russian defeat through inhospitable geography rather than battlefield action. The title's rhetoric — underscoring that even Japanese forces need not pursue into the ice — frames retreat as a kind of natural punishment. Kiyochika's characteristic handling of cold light and tonal gradation through bokashi printing would have rendered the snowscape with atmospheric bleakness, contrasting the frozen north against any warmth associated with the Japanese position. These war prints, though far from his finest artistic achievements, reveal the commercial pressures and nationalist fervor that shaped the popular print market in the Meiji period.