Japanese official war artists were commissioned to create artwork in the context of a specific war. The artists were creating sensō sakusen kirokuga ("war campaign documentary painting") for the government of Japan.

Official war artists have been appointed by governments for information or propaganda purposes and to record events on the battlefield; but there are many other types of artists depicting the subject or events of war.

Between 1937 and 1945, Japan’s military leaders commissioned official war artists to create images of the Second Sino-Japanese War

Second Sino-Japanese War

The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany , the Soviet Union and the United States...

 and the Pacific War

Pacific War

The Pacific War, also sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers broadly to the parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, then called the Far East...

. Approximately 200 pictures depicting Japan’s military campaigns were created. These pictures were presented at large-scale exhibitions during the war years.

Second Sino-Japanese War

The Japanese military supported artists during this conflict. For example, Tsuguharu Foujita

Tsuguharu Foujita

was a painter and printmaker born in Tokyo, Japan who applied Japanese ink techniques to Western style paintings.- Education :In 1910 when he was twenty-four years old Foujita graduated from what is now the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music....

 was sent to China as an official war artist by the Imperial Japanese Naval Information office. In 1938, he traveled to the battlefield front in central China.

• Tsuguharu Foujita
  Tsuguharu Foujita
  was a painter and printmaker born in Tokyo, Japan who applied Japanese ink techniques to Western style paintings.- Education :In 1910 when he was twenty-four years old Foujita graduated from what is now the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music....
  
  , 1886–1968.

Pacific War

The Japanese government and military supported an extensive war art program involving hundreds of artists; however, little is known about it. In part, this is because the U.S. government confiscated the extant artwork. Many of the records have not been examined for scholarly review.

• Tsuguharu Foujita
  Tsuguharu Foujita
  was a painter and printmaker born in Tokyo, Japan who applied Japanese ink techniques to Western style paintings.- Education :In 1910 when he was twenty-four years old Foujita graduated from what is now the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music....
  
  .
• Ryushi Kawabata, 1855–1966.
• Ryohei Koiso, 1903–1988.
• Shin Kurihara, 1894–1966.
• Saburo Miyamoto, 1905–1974.
• Kenichi Nakamura, 1895–1967.
• Kita Renzo (1876–1949)
• Konosuke Tamura, 1903–1986.
• Kenji Yoshioka, 1906–1990.