右田年英画　「向處無敵 平壌陥落」 「掩撃鏖殺 平壌略取の図」|The Fall of Pyongyang, from a series on the Sino-Japanese War

Migita Toshihide

1894 · Set of six woodblock prints; ink and color on paper · Asian Art

Amid the smoke of battle, Japanese troops encircle panicked Chinese soldiers in this panoramic view of the conquest of the Korean city of Pyongyang during the first Sino-Japanese War (1894–95). This propagandistic image, aimed at a domestic Japanese audience and saturated with racist overtones, draws a contrast between the Japanese participants’ modern, Western-style uniforms and the traditional attire of the Chinese fighters. In one passage, a Japanese soldier grabs a Chinese counterpart by his braid while raising a sword in his other hand. Countless Korean civilians and tens of thousands of Chinese and Japanese troops lost their lives in the war.

Artist

Migita Toshihide

Date

1894

Medium

Set of six woodblock prints; ink and color on paper

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Gift of Lincoln Kirstein, 1959