MIT Visualizing Cultures

New Heroes in Old Poses

Some themes and compositions were familiar, of course, because certain things did not change fundamentally. The soldiers and sailors of the Russo-Japanese War might have been younger brothers of men who fought in the Sino-Japanese War. The weaponry was but an upgrade in sophisticated destructiveness. Thus, Toshikata’s heroic, almost statue-like 1894 depiction of sailors manning a big gun against the Chinese found natural reincarnation in an excellent 1904 print by Toshihide—where the naval artillery was a bit sleeker, but the ethos of mastering modern war remained unchanged.

Mastering Modern Warfare—Again The big guns of modern warfare, manned by “Westernized” and highly disciplined fighting men, fascinated woodblock artists during the Sino-Japanese War and were reemphasized—often in almost identical form—in prints of the Russo-Japanese War.

“Lieutenant Commander Yamanaka, Chief Gunner of Our Ship Fuji, Fights Fiercely in the Naval Battle at the Entrance to Port Arthur” by Migita Toshihide, February 1904 [2000.75a-c] Sharf Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
“Japanese Warships Fire on the Enemy near Haiyang Island” by Mizuno Toshikata, September 1894 [2000.380.13] Sharf Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

One of the most dramatic renderings of the war on land came, unsurprisingly, from Kiyochika. Ornately titled “In the Battle of Nanshan Our Troops Took Advantage of a Violent Thunderstorm and Charged the Enemy,” this panoramic scene bristles with searchlights, explosions, and streaks of lightning—conveying a sense of both the vastness of the Manchurian landscape and the titanic nature of the struggle against Russia.

“In the Battle of Nanshan Our Troops Took Advantage of a Violent Thunderstorm and Charged the Enemy Fortress” by Kobayashi Kiyochika, 1904 [2000_239] Sharf Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

“In the Battle of Nanshan Our Troops Took Advantage of a Violent Thunderstorm and Charged the Enemy Fortress”
by Kobayashi Kiyochika, 1904

[2000.239] Sharf Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Another of Kiyochika’s battle prints introduces, over the portrayal of an infantry assault on an enemy fortress, a colorful picture-within-the-picture depicting Russian generals surrendering to the victorious Japanese commanders. As in Nobukazu’s “fashion plate” of Russian and Japanese military uniforms, the two parties emerge as having much in common.

“In the Battle of Nanshan Our Troops Took Advantage of a Violent Thunderstorm and Charged the Enemy Fortress” by Kobayashi Kiyochika, 1904[2000_077] Sharf Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

The inset reflects the sense of equality between Japanese and Russian officers that emerges so strongly in prints of the Russo-Japanese War.

“In the Battle of Nanshan Our Troops Took Advantage of a Violent Thunderstorm and Charged the Enemy Fortress” by Kobayashi Kiyochika, 1904 (inset detail, right)

[2000.077] Sharf Collection,
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

“In the Battle of Nanshan Our Troops Took Advantage of a Violent Thunderstorm and Charged the Enemy Fortress” (detail) by Kobayashi Kiyochika, 1904[2000_077] Sharf Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Like the naval war, however, depictions of the land war seldom went beyond recycling images introduced a decade earlier. In a sublimely unoriginal print by a little-known artist named Kyōko, for example, the familiar officer striking a Kabuki pose charges forward (right to left) flourishing his sword; the rising-sun-with-rays battle flag flutters in the wind; the gnarled pine has been replanted on the new battle site; the same crumpled enemy corpses litter the field, with a change of clothes. This is, the artist tells us, the occupation of Chongju.

“Illustration of the Russo-Japanese War: Our Armed Forces Occupy Chongju” by Kyōko, March 1904

[2000.460] Sharf Collection,
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

In a similarly derivative vein, Chikanobu reprised the attractive but now unexceptional image of a horseman and foot-soldiers in a driving blizzard. Toshihide, who had depicted muscular half-naked soldiers fording the Yalu in the Sino-Japanese War, had them popping out of the water again, 10 years older, to pummel the Russians. Yoshikuni resurrected a resolute infantryman standing on a corpse with an enemy soldier pleading for his life nearby.

“Anju Occupied by the Japanese” by Toyohara Chikanobu, March 1904

[2000.089] Sharf Collection,
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

“News of Russo-Japanese Battles: Superior Private Ōhashi Keikichi of the Imperial Guard Infantry”by Migita Toshihide, 1904

[2000.059] Sharf Collection,
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

“News of Russo-Japanese Battles: Superior Private Ôhashi Keikichi of the Imperial Guard Infantry” by Migita Toshihide, 1904 [2000_059] Sharf Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

“In the Battle of the Sha River, a Company of Our Forces Drives a Strong Enemy Force to the Left Bank of the Taizi River” by Yoshikuni, November 1904

[2000.472] Sharf Collection,
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

“In the Battle of the Sha River, a Company of Our Forces Drives a Strong Enemy Force to the Left Bank of the Taizi River” by Yoshikuni, 1904-1905 [2000_472] Sharf Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

By the time Port Arthur fell in early 1905, not many print makers were still devoting themselves to the war. One unidentified artist who did celebrate this great victory offered a congested scene around the big guns that had mesmerized artists depicting the earlier capture of Port Arthur and Weihaiwei from the Chinese; but the vigor, panache, sense of breakthrough to a brave new world that animated those earlier war prints was nowhere in evidence.

“The Battle of Japan and Russia at Port Arthur—Hurrah for Great Japan and Its Great Victory,” Artist unknown, 1905 [2000_356] Sharf Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

“The Battle of Japan and Russia at Port Arthur—Hurrah for
Great Japan and Its Great Victory,” artist unknown, 1905

[2000.356] Sharf Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

A few of the new war prints involved outright and unabashed plagiarism from the earlier war. A depiction of the 1904 naval victory at Port Arthur, for example, turns out to be an almost exact copy of a Sino-Japanese War triptych by Ginkō. Only small details in the rendering of the enemy ships and flag distinguish the two works (plus a phrase in English on the plagiarized print reading “The Japanese blockaders fighting with great bravery at Port Arthur”). Similarly, an 1895 Toshihide print depicting “Captain Sakuma Raising a War Cry at the Occupation of the Pescadores” resurfaced in 1904 as “Russian Soldiers Fleeing to the North Bank of the Yalu River.” The emperor’s valiant fighting men—officer with his sword, bugler, advancing troops—are identical. The gnarled pine is identical. The corpse sprawled face upwards in the foreground is identical, too—with the notable exception of having been transformed from a Chinese into a Russian. Only in the left-hand panel of the triptych does the artist of 1904 (his name is given as Yonehide, and he seems to have materialized out of the blue and blessedly disappeared that same year) add his own fleeing Russians.

Recycling Sino-Japanese War Prints
in the Russo-Japanese War

In the following two remarkable examples, woodblock prints purporting to depict sea and land battles in the Russo-Japanese War were literally lifted from prints produced during the Sino-Japanese War a decade earlier.

“Japanese Suicide Squads Fight Bravely in a Naval Battle at Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War”artist unidentified, 190 [2000_085] Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

This Russo-Japanese War print (above) is virtually identical to Ginkō’s Sino-Japanese War print (right). Only slight changes have been made to turn the Chinese warships into Russian vessels.

“Kabayama, the Head of the Naval Commanding Staff, Onboard ‘Saikyomaru’, Attacks Enemy Ships” by Adachi Ginkō, October 1894 [2000.380.14a-c] Sharf Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

“Japanese Suicide Squads Fight Bravely in a Naval Battle at Port Arthur during theRusso-Japanese War,” artist unidentified, 1904 (top)

[2000.085] Sharf Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

“Kabayama, the Head of the Naval Commanding Staff, Onboard Saikyomaru, Attacks Enemy Ships” by Adachi Ginkō,
October 1894 (bottom)

[2000.380.14a-c] Sharf Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

“Japanese Forces Occupying Yizhou. Russian Soldiers Fleeing to the North Bank of the Yalu” by Yonehide, April 1904 [2000_467] Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

“Picture of Captain Sakuma Raising a War Cry at the Occupation of the Pescadores” by Migita Toshihide, 1895 [2000_134] Sharf Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

In this purloined Russo-Japanese War print (above), the Sino-Japanese War model (left) has been altered by changing a Chinese corpse into a Russian and adding fleeing Russians in the left-hand panel.

“Japanese Forces Occupying Yizhou. Russian Soldiers Fleeing to
the North Bank of the Yalu” by Yonehide, April 1904 (top)

[2000.467] Sharf Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

“Picture of Captain Sakuma Raising a War Cry at the Occupation of the Pescadores” by Migita Toshihide, 1895 (bottom)

[2000.134] Sharf Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

On viewing images of a potentially disturbing nature: click here.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology © 2008 Visualizing Cultures

Printer-friendly PDF of this chapter