First Division Approaching Fengtian (Daiichigun Hôten-fu shingeki no zu), Meiji period, dated 1894

One panel of a print depicting the Japanese First Division's advance on Fengtian (present-day Shenyang) during the autumn campaign of 1894. The full title, Daiichigun Hōten-fu shingeki no zu, translates as 'Picture of the First Army advancing on Fengtian,' marking this as a reportage image produced for the civilian market during the First Sino-Japanese War. Typical of Gekko's war prints, the composition likely places marching columns of soldiers across a wintry Manchurian plain, with distant city walls or hills on the horizon. The print uses the Western perspective conventions Meiji artists were adopting alongside the baren-pressed washi and water-based pigments of the traditional nishiki-e technique.