Japanese Warship, Sinking Qing Ship

A print from August 1894 depicting a Japanese warship sinking a Qing Chinese ship during the First Sino-Japanese War — one of the most direct and dramatic of Chikanobu's battle images, the moment of naval destruction rendered with the combination of documentary precision and dramatic composition characteristic of the best Meiji war prints. The sinking of Chinese vessels was a subject of intense patriotic pride in Japan, and prints celebrating Japanese naval victories circulated in enormous quantities throughout the war.