Keisai ryakuga hyakunin (handwritten)

Keisai ryakuga hyakunin (handwritten), a woodblock-printed book dated to 1815 in the holdings of the Art Institute of Chicago, presents one hundred people in Keisai Masayoshi's signature abbreviated sketch style. The title literally invokes "one hundred people in Keisai's abbreviated drawing," and the volume gathers a comprehensive set of human types in the calligraphic brush mode that defined his mature work. The "handwritten" notation in the museum's title likely refers to a manuscript-style or facsimile inscription within the volume itself, distinguishing this edition from other printings. The book belongs to the later phase of Masayoshi's career, when he was working under the Tsuyama clan patronage that had been awarded him in 1797 and signing as Keisai. By 1815, his ryakugashiki series had been in continuous publication for two decades and his abbreviated sketch style was firmly established as one of the most influential pictorial modes of late Edo Japan. The Art Institute of Chicago's holding preserves this mature work as part of an extensive collection of Keisai's printed books, providing scholars with a key reference for studying the evolution and reception of his figure work across his long career.