This paper discusses Kabuki's role as a news media by comparing kabuki performances staged during the Satsuma rebellion (1877) to those concerning the Sino-Japanese war (1894-1895). In previous research, the negative reception of plays on the topic of the Sino-Japanese War has been considered as sign of Kabuki's inherent inability in dealing with modern warfare, and the reason why Kabuki turned away from staging plays on contemporary topics. However, the play Okige no kumo harau asagochi (1878) depicted the battles of the Satsuma rebellion, using a script based on newspaper articles, and incorporated realistic details of modern warfare, such as cannons, trumpets, commandments and marches on stage, yet received rave reviews. This paper analyses the success of this play, by comparing it to the play Nihon dai shōri (1894), which used newspaper articles from the Sino-Japanese war as a basis for its script. I will show that, contradictory to what has previously been argued, Meiji period Kabuki was not inherently incapable of dealing with modern warfare, and discuss what implications this has for re-considering Kabuki as one form of news media in the early 20^th century.