Ryakugashiki (a)Formerly listed as Jinbutsu ryakugashiki (a)

Ryakugashiki (a) - Formerly listed as Jinbutsu ryakugashiki (a), a woodblock-printed book of 1799 held by the Art Institute of Chicago, is one of multiple editions of Masayoshi's people-subject sketch album, here under a revised cataloging designation. The museum's title note records a curatorial history: the volume was originally classified as a copy of Jinbutsu ryakugashiki (Abbreviated Pictures of People) and subsequently recataloged under the more general Ryakugashiki title. Such revisions are common in museum holdings of Edo illustrated books, where multiple editions, variant titles, and overlapping contents can complicate the bibliographic record. The 1799 date places the volume four years after the founding 1795 Ryakugashiki and two years after Choju ryakugashiki (1797), demonstrating how quickly Masayoshi was developing his sketch-album program in the late 1790s. The figures are rendered in his signature abbreviated style, treating human types across the Edo social register with characteristic economy of line. The Art Institute's holding of this volume contributes to the museum's extensive Masayoshi book collection and helps document the publishing history of his most influential pictorial format.