No. 16

This 1875 woodblock print ([nishiki-e](/glossary/nishiki-e)) in chūban format, held by the Minneapolis Institute of Art (accession number 2019.139.254), is a single sheet from a numbered series produced by Utagawa Yoshitaki in the middle years of the Meiji era. The dimensions, 17.5 by 25.4 cm, are consistent with the chūban format that was standard for Osaka kamigata-e and that distinguished it from the larger [oban](/glossary/oban) prints dominant in Edo. The sheet's identification simply as "No. 16" reflects the museum's cataloguing of an individual print from what was originally a longer numbered series, the larger title and subject of which are not specified in the catalogue record. Numbered series were a staple of Osaka print publishing, allowing publishers to issue prints incrementally as kabuki seasons unfolded and to maintain a steady stream of sales to dedicated fans collecting complete sets. The print is dated to 1875, placing it firmly in the mature phase of Yoshitaki's career when he was the dominant kamigata-e designer in Osaka. By this point the kamigata-e tradition was already coming under pressure from photography and lithography, but Yoshitaki and his publishers continued to issue prints in substantial numbers for the Osaka theatre audience. The sheet is preserved in the Minneapolis Institute of Art's holdings of Japanese woodblock prints and represents the steady mid-Meiji output that defined Yoshitaki's most productive decades.