About This Print

Source: Smithsonian Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery website http://www.asia.si.edu/collections/singleObject.cfm?ObjectNumber=S1999.55a-c
"Ogata Gekko, a leading print designer and illustrator, here describes a scene in which Japanese soldiers have captured several Chinese soldiers in the foreground. One has just been pushed over the edge of the wall on the roof of a building they were defending. In the distance, a fierce battle rages, giving rise to billowing smoke and the orange streaks of gunfire."

The Capture of Pyongyang

In late July 1894, Japan began military operations in Korea against China, which had established itself as Korea's suzerain in 1860.  Within a month Pyongyang was China's last position held in Korea and by September 16 they had lost this city to a Japanese assault.

Source: Impressions of the Front: Woodcuts of the Sino-Japanese War, Shunpei Okamoto, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1983, p. 13.
The Japanese began a full assault on September 15.  The Chinese defense lacked coordinated leadership and organization and the troops lacked training and good morale.  As the enemy neared, the Chinese supreme commander (General Yeh Chih-ch'ao ) proposed a retreat north to the Yalu River without fighting.  As soon as Japanese troops penetrated one of the city gates, the supreme commander hoisted a surrender flag and fled in the night, abandoning his commanders.  But the Chinese continued to fight from the ramparts.  The north-wing commander Tso Pao-kwei led his troops to counterattack the Japanese, showing his courageous spirit until his heroic death in battle.  Except for the collapse in the defense caused by the supreme commander’s cravenness, the Chinese could have continued to fight.  Early on September 16, the Japanese entered the stronghold and found only a few Chinese soldiers.  Pingyang was occupied without further fighting.  The Chinese had retreated north across the Yalu River, thus losing their last position, as well as their prestige, in Korea.

Print Details

IHL Catalog	#544
Title or Description	Sino-Japanese War: Japanese Military Might Captures Pyongyang  Nisshin sensō: Nissei Heijō shōhō zu 日清戰爭: 日勢平壌勝捕圖
Artist	Ogata Gekkō (1859-1920)
Signature	Gekkō 月耕
Seal	一嶽一叡 ichigaku ichiei*
Publication Date	1894 (Meiji 27)
Publisher	Takekawa Risaburō (Chikusendō) note: the left margin where the publisher's information would be on this print has been trimmed.
Impression	excellent
Colors	excellent
Condition	good - individual sheets trimmed to margins; unbacked; soiling and minor toning
Genre	ukiyo-e; senso-e (Sino-Japanese War)
Miscellaneous
Format	vertical oban triptych
H x W Paper	14 x 9 1/4 in. (35.6 x 23.5 cm) each sheet
Literature	The Sino-JapaneseWar, Nathan Chaikin, self-published, 1983, p. 72, pl. 34.
Collections This Print	Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 2000.191a-c, 2000.380.04a-c, RES.27.158a-c; Smithsonian Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery  S1999.55a-c; The Athenaeum of Philadelphia 279-PR-017; National Diet Library call no. 寄別8-5-1-2

* Reading of seal is taken from the website of David Humpries on Ogata Gekko