The Fall of Pyongyang, from a series on the Sino-Japanese War

1894

Not on view

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.

Artwork Details

右田年英画　「向處無敵平壌陥落」「掩撃鏖殺平壌略取の図」
Title: The Fall of Pyongyang, from a series on the Sino-Japanese War
Artist: Migita Toshihide (Japanese, 1863–1925)
Period: Meiji period (1868–1912)
Date: 1894
Culture: Japan
Medium: Set of six woodblock prints; ink and color on paper
Dimensions: Image (each): 13 1/2 × 9 1/8 in. (34.3 × 23.2 cm)
Classification: Prints
Credit Line: Gift of Lincoln Kirstein, 1959
Object Number: JP3177a–f
Curatorial Department: Asian Art

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