The fall of Eian gate at Kinshu castle, Private Onoguchi Tokuji

Object Details

• Artist

  Kobayashi Kiyochika 小林清親 (1847-1915)

• Publisher

  Katada Chojiro (Hori Cho) 片田長治郎

• Label

  Kiyochika's war prints, from both the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars, were arrangements of color units. Even the puppet-like figures reflect the artist's stylistic priority. His trademark interest in depicting light from a single source is also evident in this print.

  Heretofore anonymous, low-ranking soldiers were given prominence in these propaganda prints-surely to make the war effort more palatable to those on the home front. Conventions of Kabuki theater, such as the dramatic pose of the soldier and the stage-like setting of the scene, are superimposed over military action. Lüshun, called Port Arthur by Westerners, is at the tip of the Liaodong Peninsula in China and was a critical harbor and strategic site in the geopolitics of northeast Asia. The castle at Kinshu was located at the narrowest point of the peninsula and guarded all land approaches to Port Arthur.

• Provenance

  To 2003

  Robert O. Muller

  From 2003

  National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution by gift from Robert O. Muller [1]

  Notes:

  [1] Accessioned on December 6, 2003. See Acquisition Consideration Form, in object file. From 2003-2023, the object was part of the National Museum of Asian Art’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection and on March 21, 2023, the work was internally transferred to the National Museum of Asian Art Collection.

• Collection

  National Museum of Asian Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Dream Worlds: Modern Japanese Prints and Paintings from the Robert O. Muller Collection (November 06, 2004 to January 7, 2007)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Robert O. Muller (1911-2003)

• Origin

  Japan

• Credit Line

  Robert O. Muller Collection

• Type

  Print

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

  There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1890s

• Name

  Muller, Robert O.

• Place

  Japan

• Topic

  Wars, Art, Robert O. Muller collection, Japanese Art, Triptych, Meiji era (1868 - 1912)

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Prints