Background
Kobayashi Kiyochika (小林清親 1847–1915), whose given name ws Katsunosuke, was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist who studied briefly with Kawanobe Gyôsai and Shibata Zeshin. His particular interest in the effects of light and shade may have derived from the photographer Shimooka Renjô in Yokohama. He is purported to have known the Western painter Chraales Wirgman.
He is best known for his color woodblock prints and newspaper illustrations. His oeuvre documents the rapid modernization and Westernization Japan underwent during the Meiji period (1868–1912) and employs a realistic sense of light and shade called "light-ray pictures" (kôsen-ga 光線画) inspired by Western art techniques. His work first found an audience in the 1870s with prints of red-brick buildings and trains that had proliferated after the Meiji Restoration; his prints of the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–95 were also popular. Woodblock printing fell out of favor during this period and Kobayashi's prints were among the last significant examples of ukiyo-e.
Demand for Kiyochika's prints slumped in the 1880s and so he turned to comic images for newspapers. The Dandan-sha publishing company employed him from late 1881, and caricatures of his appeared in each issue of the satirical Marumaru Chinbun (團團珍聞) from August 1882. He continued to produce prints, but at a less frequent pace. These were produced primarily from 1876 to 1881; Kiyochika would continue to publish ukiyo-e prints for the rest of his life, but also worked extensively in illustrations and sketches for newspapers, magazines, and books. He also produced a number of prints depicting scenes from the Sino-Japanese War and Russo-Japanese War, collaborating with caption writer Koppi Dojin, penname of Nishimori Takeki (1861–1913), to contribute a number of illustrations to the propaganda series "Long live Japan: 100 victories, 100 laughs" (Nihon banzai hyakusen hyakushô). To accommodate this new way of seeing, Kiyochika effectively invented a visual vocabulary that incorporated elements of oil painting, copperplate printing, and photography. Interest in Kiyochika's prints revived in the 1910s when Tokyo intellectuals began to interpret his kôsen-ga as a critique of modernity. Beyond his role as an artist, Kobayashi was also an influential teacher, mentoring a new generation of printmakers who carried Japanese art into the twentieth century.
Design
This print is from a series of twenty-five which celebrated heroes of the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895). Captain Kani Ichita (可児大尉市太) was meant to lead his company on an assualt at Port Arthur, but he was suffering from dysentary and collapsed within a hundred yards of the fort, leaving his men to carry on without him. Although he had been taken to a hospital, he slipped out a week later and returned to the location where he had fallen and committed seppuku, leaving a note "At this place, thinking that the fall of the enemy fortress was imminent, I allowed myself to halt because of illness. The momentary rest is the mistake of my life. I leave this letter to vindicate the honor of my name."
This impression is quite good, equalling the best that we have seen over the years.
References:
- Rhiannon Paget, in Hu, Philip, et al., Conflicts of Interest: Art and War in Modern Japan, Saint Louis Art Museum, 2016, p. 164, no. 64.1
(inv. no. C-1499).
- https://www.scholten-japanese-art.com/kiyochika_34b.php
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