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The Fall of Fenghuangcheng, later called Our Elite Forces Capturing the Pescadores Islands in Taiwan (Seiei naru waga gun Taiwan Hôkotô o senryô suru no zu)


鳳凰城陥落 (精鋭ナル我群占領スル台湾澎湖嶋ヲ之図)
Kobayashi Kiyochika (Japanese, 1847–1915)
Publisher: Matsuki Heikichi (Daikokuya) (Japanese)
Japanese
Meiji era
1894 (Meiji 27), December

Medium/Technique Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Dimensions Vertical ôban triptych; 37.5 × 75.1 cm (14 3/4 × 29 9/16 in.)
Credit Line William Sturgis Bigelow Collection
Accession Number21.1777-9
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrints

Catalogue Raisonné Hu et al, Conflicts of Interest (St. Louis exh. cat., 2016), #57; Virgin et al., Japan at the Dawn of the Modern Age (MFA, 2001), #58, photo p. 107; Swinton, In Battle's Light (Worcester, 1991), #25; Asai, Kinsei nishiki-e sesôshi 8 (1936), pp. 40-1
DescriptionTriptych (lacks inscribed title seen on other impressions): 21.1777 (right), 21.1778 (center), 21.1779 (left)

MFA impressions, with title: 2000.422a-c, RES.27.167a-c
MFA impressions, without title: 21.1777-9, RES.23.264-6

Rhiannon Paget, in Hu et al. 2016, points out that the 1894 date in the left margin actually predates the occupation of the Pescadores in 1895 and suggestes that the first edition of the print may have been the untitled version, which is very similar to a scene identified as Fenghuangcheng in a board game designed by Kiyochika in 1894. Apparently the blocks were recycled for a second edition, with a new title, in 1895.
Signed Kiyochika
清親
Marks Artist's seal: Kiyo
ProvenanceBy 1911, purchased by William Sturgis Bigelow (b. 1850 – d. 1926), Boston [see note 1]; 1911, gift of Bigelow to the MFA. (Accession Date: August 3, 1911)

NOTES:
[1] Much of Bigelow's collection of Asian art was formed during his residence in Japan between 1882 and 1889, although he also made acquisitions in Europe and the United States. Bigelow deposited many of these objects at the MFA in 1890 before donating them to the Museum's collection at later dates.