A Scouting Party of the Japanese Army Observing the Movements of Russian Cossack Soldiers across the Daedong River 1904

Kobayashi Kiyochika made this print of the Russo-Japanese War. The dark, shadowy figures huddle around a small fire on a cold beach at night; you can almost feel the chill and tension. The moon is full, but it doesn't quite illuminate the scene enough to relieve the gloom. What might Kiyochika have been thinking? War is, like, inherently weird, and this print captures a sense of it. But it's also about observation and the act of seeing in the darkness. Kiyochika wasn't just documenting a moment, he was trying to get at the heart of the event. The artist uses light and shadow to amplify the intensity of the scene. And of course, Kiyochika was part of a larger movement of artists depicting war. In his own way, he was engaging in an ongoing conversation about the human condition, using the language of art to grapple with difficult questions.