“The Second Army Attacking and
Occupying Port Arthur”


Artist unknown, 1894–1895


This rare and extraordinarily detailed black-and-white woodcut by an anonymous Japanese artist is a tantalizing example of “what might have been.” If Japanese artists had abandoned the centuries-old medium of multi-color woodblock prints and worked instead in the monochromatic mode of engravings and lithographs popular in the West, the Japanese populace might have visualized the war this way instead. Medium matters!

Scroll right to view details...