The Fall of Fenghuangcheng, later called Our Elite Forces Capturing the Pescadores Islands in Taiwan Possibly 1894

Editor: I find this print, "The Fall of Fenghuangcheng, later called Our Elite Forces Capturing the Pescadores Islands in Taiwan" by Kobayashi Kiyochika, quite striking. The near-monochrome palette gives it a somber, almost ghostly quality. Curator: Yes, it's the heavy use of Prussian blue, isn't it? You can almost feel the weight of the ink, of the water itself. It’s less about individual heroism and more about the machinery of imperial expansion. Editor: Exactly. Look how Kiyochika used woodblocks—not just for image transfer but also for texture. See the way he builds up the landscape from layers of labor? Curator: And those tiny pinpricks of light reflecting on the water, those must have taken such careful precision. It feels like a memory, something half-forgotten, half-invented. Editor: Right, and Kiyochika was walking a tightrope here, glorifying war while also hinting at its human cost through the painstaking labor and subdued tones. Curator: Well, it's certainly given me plenty to ponder, how these images both glorify and critique at once. Editor: Agreed. It’s not a simple picture, and that’s what makes it so interesting.