Cavalry Charge, Sino-Japanese War, from Fuzoku Gaho

Cavalry Charge, Sino-Japanese War, from Fuzoku Gaho belongs to Lithographs. Lithography was a Western printing process adopted in Meiji Japan for commercial, educational, and artistic publication. Its drawn marks and tonal range differ from carved woodblock line and demonstrate Gekkō’s participation in a changing print economy.

The title identifies the design’s particular figure, episode, object, or place, anchoring Gekkō’s composition in a larger network of historical narrative and cultural association. The catalog identifies battle, horse, landscape, men, tree, and war among the principal motifs. Gekkō uses their relationship to clarify action, season, setting, and narrative emphasis rather than treating them as interchangeable decoration.

Lithographic drawing permits continuous tonal modeling and freer marks than relief-cut woodblock line, placing the work within Meiji experimentation with imported reproductive methods.