Colonel Kumamoto Masaji, Regimental Commander of the Imperial Guard Artillery 1904

Kobayashi Kiyochika made this woodblock print depicting Colonel Kumamoto Masaji, Regimental Commander of the Imperial Guard Artillery. The flat planes of color create a stylized sense of depth. The peach-colored earth and the grey-blue sky give the print a tranquil, dreamlike quality, which contrasts so strikingly with the subject matter. I find the white puffs of smoke really interesting – they read like a kind of abstracted calligraphy that softens the implied violence. There’s a real tension here between the clean, crisp lines and the chaotic scene being depicted. It reminds me that art doesn't always have to be a mirror reflecting reality; it can be a lens that refracts it, offering us new ways of seeing and understanding. Looking at the regimented lines of soldiers and cannons, I’m also reminded of the work of Hiroshige, but here the focus is less on the landscape and more on the human drama unfolding within it. It's a reminder that art is an ongoing dialogue, with each artist building upon the ideas and techniques of those who came before.