This print is one of at least thirty-four prints issued as part of the series Comical Art Exhibit of the Sino-Japanese War (Nissei sensô shôraku gakai) by Kobayashi Kiyochika (1847-1915).

This print shows the captured Chinese battleship Chinen 鎮遠 in its new home port at the Yokosuka navy yard in Kanagawa Prefecture with an armada of small boats taking spectators to tour the ship.  The symbolical meaning of the two onlookers in the foreground is unknown.

For more information on the capture of the Chinen see the print Viewing the Captured Chinese Warship Chinen at Yokosuka Naval Port.

The Series Comical Art Exhibit of the Sino-Japanese War

As with his more famous comic series One Hundred Victories, One Hundred Laughs (Hyakusen hyakushô), this series parodied events of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 and disparaged the Chinese.

The prints for this series were originally printed on a full size vertical oban sheet containing two chuban size images.  The series title in kanji 日清戦争笑楽画会 appears on some prints in this series, but not all, and may have been hand stamped on the sheet.  Other prints in this series can be found at the University of Vienna website http://kenkyuu.jpn.univie.ac.at/karikaturen/showserresults.asp?Page=1&MaxDocs=&NumberOfHits=16&lang=e and in the collection of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.