【作品解説 / Description of the work】

鉛筆画「わだつみの駿馬 −戦艦 霧島 2602−」 Pencil Drawing “Poseidon’s Swift Horse -Battleship Kirishima 2602-” 　「霧島」は、金剛型戦艦の4番艦です。同艦は三菱長崎造船所で建造され、川崎造船所で建造された3番艦「榛名」と共に、初めて日本の民間企業が建造した超ド級艦となりました。就役後すぐに第一次世界大戦が勃発し、当時世界最強と評価されていた金剛型4隻で構成された第三戦隊は、太平洋や中国方面のドイツ東洋艦隊の動きを封じる任務に従事。第一次改装直後の特別大演習観艦式（昭和5年）において、「霧島」は昭和天皇が乗艦する御召艦を務める栄誉を受けました。大東亜戦争では、南雲機動部隊の随伴艦として真珠湾攻撃・セイロン沖海戦・ミッドウェイ海戦・第二次ソロモン海戦・南太平洋海戦に参加。その後、第三次ソロモン海戦第二夜戦でアメリカ海軍の戦艦「サウスダコタ」・「ワシントン」と熾烈な砲撃戦を展開し、凄絶な最期を遂げました。 作品は、「霧島」の最後の戦いとなった第三次ソロモン海戦第二夜戦で、戦艦「ワシントン」によって打ち上げられた照明弾に照らされた同艦を描いたものです。この直前に「サウスダコタ」を砲撃により撃破した「霧島」でしたが、「ワシントン」のレーダー照準による猛烈な砲撃に晒され、わずか7分間に16インチ砲9発もの命中弾を受け、沈没しました。手元にあった「愛宕」の戦闘詳報の記述に基づき、構図や照明弾の位置を考えながら制作しました。 The Kirishima was the fourth ship of the Kongo class battleships. She was built at the Mitsubishi Nagasaki Shipyard, and together with the third ship, the Haruna, built at the Kawasaki Shipyard, she became the first super-dreadnought to be built by a private Japanese company. Soon after her commissioning, World War I broke out, and the Third Squadron, consisting of four Kongo class ships, which were regarded as the strongest in the world at the time, was engaged in a mission to block the movements of the German Eastern Fleet in the Pacific and China. Immediately after her first refit, Kirishima had the honor of being designated as the Emperor Showa’s official ship during the Naval Review and the Naval Grand Exercise held in 1930. In the Greater East Asian War, she participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Battle of Ceylon, the Battle of Midway, the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, and the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands as an accompanying ship of the Nagumo Task Force. Later, in the second night of the Third Battle of the Solomons, she engaged in a fierce firefight with the U.S. Navy battleships South Dakota and Washington and met a terrible end. This work depicts the Kirishima illuminated by flares launched by the battleship Washington during the Second Night Battle of the Third Battle of the Solomons, her last battle. Just prior to this, the Kirishima had damaged the South Dakota by gunfire, but was exposed to a furious bombardment by the radar sighting of the Washington and sank after being hit by nine 16-inch guns in just seven minutes. Based on the description in the battle report of “Atago” that I had on hand, I worked on the composition and the position of the flares.