Naval battle while capturing Haiyang Island

One of a set of prints depicting the Japanese naval engagement at Haiyang Island during the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895), this design documents Japan's seizure of the strategically located island in the Yellow Sea from Qing Chinese forces. Gekko was among the most commercially active producers of sensō-e (war prints) during the conflict, and these compositions typically combine dramatic seascape elements — rolling waves, smoke from cannon fire, the dark hulls of ironclad warships — with visible national flags and dynamic battle action. The print likely employs strong diagonal compositional lines to convey movement and tension, with bokashi gradation rendering smoke and sea spray. Figures on deck, if visible, would be rendered in Western-style military dress consistent with Meiji Japan's modernized armed forces. The print served both documentary and propagandistic purposes, circulating news of imperial victories to a domestic audience.