Editing Russo-Japanese War (section)

=== Visual arts ===
[[File:Battle of Liaoyang, woodblock print.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Ogata Gessan,"The Battle of Liaoyang", woodblock print, 1904]]

The Russo-Japanese War was covered by dozens of foreign journalists who sent back sketches that were turned into [[lithograph]]s and other reproducible forms. Propaganda images were circulated by both sides, often in the form of postcards and based on insulting racial stereotypes.<ref>{{Cite web |author=Dower, John W. |year=2010 |title=Asia Rising |website=[[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]] [[Visualizing Cultures (website)|Visualizing Cultures]] |url=http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/asia_rising/ar_essay01.html |access-date=17 June 2015 |archive-date=17 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150617125002/http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/asia_rising/ar_essay01.html |url-status=live }}</ref> These were produced not only by the combatants but by those from European countries who supported one or the other side or had a commercial or colonial stake in the area. War photographs were also popular, appearing in both the press and in book form.<ref name="Dower2008">{{Cite web |author=Dower, John W. |year=2008 |title=Yellow Promise / Yellow Peril |website=MIT Visualizing Cultures |url=http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/yellow_promise_yellow_peril/yp_essay01.html |access-date=17 June 2015 |archive-date=8 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151108071415/http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/yellow_promise_yellow_peril/yp_essay01.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In Russia, the war was covered by anonymous satirical graphic [[Lubok#Russo-Japanese War lubok|luboks]] for sale in markets, recording the war for the domestic audience. Around 300 were made before their creation was banned by the Russian government. Their Japanese equivalents were [[Ukiyo-e|woodblock prints]]. These had been common during the Sino-Japanese war a decade earlier and celebrations of the new conflict tended to repeat the same imagery and situations. But by this time in Japan postcards had become the most common form of communication and they soon replaced prints as a medium for topographical imagery and war reportage. In some ways, however, they were still dependent on the print for their pictorial conventions, not least in issuing the cards in series that assembled into a composite scene or design, either as [[diptychs]], [[triptych]]s or even more ambitious formats. However, captioning swiftly moved from the calligraphic side inscription to a printed title below, and not just in Japanese but in English and other European languages. There was a lively sense that these images served not only as mementoes but also as propaganda statements.{{r|Dower2008}}

War artists were to be found on the Russian side and even figured among the casualties. [[Vasily Vereshchagin]] went down with the ''Petropavlovsk'', Admiral Makarov's flagship, when it was sunk by mines. However, his last work, a picture of a council of war presided over by the admiral, was recovered almost undamaged.<ref>{{cite web |date=11 March 2010 |title=State Historical Museum Opens 'The Year 1812 in the Paintings by Vasily Vereshchagin' |website=artdaily |url=http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=36558 |access-date=17 June 2015 |archive-date=7 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120307114908/http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=36558 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=30 August 1905 |title=War Lasted 18 Months; Biggest Battle Known... Russian Miscalculation |newspaper=New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1905/08/30/archives/war-lasted-18-months-biggest-battle-known-engagement-at-mukden.html |access-date=11 June 2018 |archive-date=12 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612230632/https://www.nytimes.com/1905/08/30/archives/war-lasted-18-months-biggest-battle-known-engagement-at-mukden.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Another artist, [[Mykola Samokysh]], first came to notice for his reports during the war and the paintings worked up from his diary sketch-books. Other depictions appeared after the event. The two by the Georgian [[Naïve art|naïve]] painter [[Niko Pirosmani]] from 1906<ref>See reproductions from [[WikiArt]]: [http://www.wikiart.org/en/niko-pirosmani/the-russian-japanese-war-1906#supersized-artistPaintings-216177 1] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150617124231/http://www.wikiart.org/en/niko-pirosmani/the-russian-japanese-war-1906#supersized-artistPaintings-216177 |date=17 June 2015 }} and [http://www.wikiart.org/en/niko-pirosmani/russo-japanese-war#supersized-artistPaintings-302745 2] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150617143407/http://www.wikiart.org/en/niko-pirosmani/russo-japanese-war#supersized-artistPaintings-302745 |date=17 June 2015 }}.</ref> must have been dependent on newspaper reports since he was not present. Then, in 1914 at the outset of World War I, Yury Repin made an episode during the Battle of Yalu River the subject of a broad heroic canvas.<ref>[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_of_Yalu_River_by_Repin.jpg ''Chuliengcheng. In a glorious death eternal life''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150617125738/https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_of_Yalu_River_by_Repin.jpg |date=17 June 2015 }}, oil on canvas by Juri Repin.</ref>