Attack on Port Arthur in the Moonlight (Ryōjunkō gekka no kōgeki)
旅順港月下之攻撃
- Date:
- 1894
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print triptych
- Source:
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
旅順港月下之攻撃
This 1894 [triptych](/glossary/triptych) by Shinohara Kiyooki, held by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (accession sc131795, object 129949), depicts a night attack on the harbor of Port Arthur (Lüshun) during the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. The Japanese title Ryōjunkō gekka no kōgeki ("attack on Port Arthur in the moonlight") locates the action at the Liaodong Peninsula naval base that had become a central objective of the Japanese campaign against Qing China, and the moonlit-night setting belongs to the established senso-e convention of using dramatic nocturnal lighting to heighten the visual impact of naval engagements. Kiyooki's composition deploys the panoramic three-sheet format that defined the genre, with the moon hanging over the harbor, the silhouettes of warships rendered against the night sky, and the bright aniline reds of muzzle flashes and signal lamps providing color accents within the predominantly cool tonal scheme. The Sino-Japanese War triptychs of 1894-1895 were Japan's principal popular medium for visualizing the conflict that established the country as a modern imperial power, and Kiyooki's contribution belongs to the most active phase of the senso-e tradition. A decade later he would return to the night-attack subject for his Russo-Japanese War triptych of 1904.
懲露義戦 鬼畜隊夜襲
1904
Color woodblock print triptych
栄城湾上陸後之露営
1895
Color woodblock print triptych
靖国神社大祭之図
1895
Color woodblock print triptych
威海衛日東砲撃之図
1895
Color woodblock print triptych
![Mount Fuji on a Moonlit Night, Kawai Bridge (Tsukiyo no Fuji [Kawaibashi]), from the series "Selection of Views of the Tokaido (Tokaido fukei senshu)" by Kawase Hasui](https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/d0960668-1e73-339a-b182-fb995a54bff0/full/843,/0/default.jpg)
1947
Color woodblock print; oban
March 1933
Color woodblock print; oban
1919
Color woodblock print
January 1938
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Attack on Port Arthur in the Moonlight (Ryōjunkō gekka no kōgeki) (旅順港月下之攻撃) was created by Shinohara Kiyooki (篠原清興) in 1894.
Attack on Port Arthur in the Moonlight (Ryōjunkō gekka no kōgeki) depicts moonlight.