The Fall of Pyongyang, from a series on the Sino-Japanese War
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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Migita Toshihide
January 1895
Utagawa Hiroshige
1857
Katsushika Hokusai
ca. 1830–32
Sakai Ōho
ca. 1839
Chōbunsai Eishi
early 19th century
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