Original Kobayashi Kiyochika Woodblock Print Russian Demon Requesting Surrender Russo-Japanese War 1904 13"W LS#083

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Kobayashi Kiyochika (小林清親, 1847–1915) — Russian Demon Requesting Surrender, from Nihon Banzai Hyakusen Hyakushō (日本萬歳百撰百笑)

Antique Japanese Meiji Era, 1904

This series dates from the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–5. The victorious Japanese forces are shown as valiant heroes; the invading Russians are depicted as foolish and ineffectual. Many similar prints were produced over the course of the war by other artists, but this series stands out as its creator, Kobayashi Kiyochika (1847–1915), was not only an extremely accomplished and versatile artist, but also an unlikely propagandist. 

The figure is a lumbering oni-demon in Russian guise: red-haired and bearded, dressed in a black greatcoat, standing atop the hulls of defeated warships worn as sandals. He carries a white surrender flag in one hand and a sheathed weapon in the other, an empty wicker purse hanging at his chest, the wreckage of a battleship looming behind him. The visual joke is layered — the oni convention of Japanese folklore grafted onto a figure of geopolitical humiliation, the empty purse signaling Russia's financial exhaustion, the boat-sandals her naval defeats. Surrounding the image, dense columns of satirical text in the characteristic style of the series caption writer Nishimori Takeki (1861–1913), writing under the pseudonym Koppi Dōjin (骨皮道人 — "Master Skin and Bones"), whose name and the print title appear in the rightmost column of the text block. 

The series title Nihon Banzai Hyakusen Hyakushō was punned for the dual meaning of "One Hundred Collected Laughs" and "One Hundred Battles, One Hundred Victories." Kiyochika produced two Hyakusen Hyakushō series — one for the Sino-Japanese War (1894–95) and another for the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05). 

• Title: Russian Demon Requesting Surrender
• Artist: Kobayashi Kiyochika (小林清親, 1847–1915)
• Caption writer: Koppi Dōjin (骨皮道人), pseudonym of Nishimori Takeki (1861–1913)
• Series: Nihon Banzai Hyakusen Hyakushō (日本萬歳百撰百笑 — Long Live Japan: One Hundred Victories, One Hundred Laughs), Russo-Japanese War series
• Publisher: Matsuki Heikichi, 1904
• Format: Ōban tate-e, mat = 13" W × 17 3/4" H (33 × 45 cm); color woodblock print on washi
• Reference: Henry D. Smith II, Kiyochika: Artist of Meiji Japan, pp. 94–95

Condition: Horizontal crease in lower portion; otherwise very good impression and color. Please see photos for condition details.