---
title: 'The Great Battle of Ansong Ford: The Valor of Captain Matsuzaki'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ansong-ford-toshikata-1894/
description: 'A nishiki-e woodblock print titled ''The Great Battle of Ansong Ford: The Valor of Captain Matsuzaki'' shows a Japanese officer leading a bayonet charge…'
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![The Great Battle of Ansong Ford: The Valor of Captain Matsuzaki](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/ansong-ford-toshikata-1894.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/ansong-ford-toshikata-1894.jpg)

# The Great Battle of Ansong Ford: The Valor of Captain Matsuzaki

A nishiki-e woodblock print titled 'The Great Battle of Ansong Ford: The Valor of Captain Matsuzaki' shows a Japanese officer leading a bayonet charge against fleeing Chinese soldiers during the First Sino-Japanese War. Mass-produced war prints like this one turned individual battlefield episodes into heroic set pieces for a home audience that had no other way to see the front.

- **Date:** 1894
- **Period:** [Pre-1914](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=pre-1914)
- **Made by:** Empire of Japan (First Sino-Japanese War home-front print); artist Mizuno Toshikata
- **Region:** [East Asia](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=east-asia)
- **Country:** [Empire of Japan](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=empire-of-japan)
- **Medium:** [Print](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=print)
- **Issuer type:** [State](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=state)
- **Regime:** [Meiji Japan](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=meiji-japan)
- **Leader:** [Ito Hirobumi](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=ito-hirobumi)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Commemorate](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=commemorate)
- **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Home front](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=home-front)
- **Event:** [First Sino Japanese War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=first-sino-japanese-war)
- **Techniques:** [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mizuno_Toshikata_-_The_Great_Battle_of_Ansong_Ford-_The_Valor_of_Captain_Matsuzaki_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg), retrieved September 28, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (per Wikimedia Commons) 1AE-wzzCmlXXDQ at Google Cultural Institute maximum zoom level

## Text on the object

Original (Japanese) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
安城渡大激戦

松崎大尉勇猛

[illegible — small printed publisher's colophon (date and printer/publisher line), bottom left margin]
[artist seal, bottom left margin]
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
The Great Battle of Ansong Ford

The Valor of Captain Matsuzaki

[illegible — small printed publisher's colophon]
[artist seal]
```

The title cartouche (top right) is clearly legible and matches the record title. A vertical colophon line in the bottom-left margin (beginning with what appears to be a Meiji-era date) and the artist's red seal beside it are too small/low-contrast in this scan to transcribe confidently; not guessed at.

[← The Radical Programme, No. 4: Dismemberment of the Empire (Gladstone & Co. auction India), St Stephen's Review Presentation Cartoon](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/radical-programme-selling-india-st-stephens-review-1891/) [En posesión de su presa (In Possession of Its Prey) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/en-posesion-de-su-presa-el-diablo-1894/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Gold solidus of Constantine I, reverse RESTITVTORI LIBERTATIS](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-constantine-i-restitutori-libertatis-0313/) (0313 · Glittering generalities)
- [Gold solidus of Justinian I, reverse VICTORIA AVGGG with Victory holding a Christogram staff](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-justinian-i-victoria-avggg-0538/) (0538 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Frontispiece to Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings (Hollar, 1649)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eikon-basilike-frontispiece-hollar-1649/) (1649 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Trois Tetes sous l'meme bonnet (three heads under the same cap)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/trois-tetes-sous-le-meme-bonnet-1789/) (1789 · Plain folks, Glittering generalities)
- [Proclamation by the Queen in Council, to the Princes, Chiefs, and People of India (printed sheet, Allahabad, 1 November 1858)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/queens-proclamation-to-the-people-of-india-1858/) (Nov 1, 1858 · Glittering generalities, Scapegoating)
- ['The Congress Cross or "Swastik"' (Pickings from the Hindi Punch, Bombay, February 1896)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hindi-punch-congress-swastik-1896/) (Feb 1896 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Un combate en el río Zapote (A Fight on the Zapote River), Blanco y Negro](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/un-combate-en-el-rio-zapote-1898/) (Jul 9, 1898 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Pears' Soap: "The first step towards lightening the White Man's Burden" (Cosmopolitan advertisement, 1899)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/pears-soap-white-mans-burden-1899/) (1899 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)