Thread by @Thomas_Clements

As a fan of japanese art *and* as a taphonomist, I was very excited to learn about Kusôzu: watercolour paintings that depict the decay and decomposition of a human body.

Let's talk about this using Kobayashi Eitaku's 'Body of a Courtesan in Nine Stages' (1870s) *GRAPHIC THREAD*

Before we go any further, this is a warning. If you are squeamish then I would stop here.

If not, lets look at some art and discuss.

Our courtesan has ceased to be.

Here the skin has discoloured and the body has started to bloat. This is realistic. William the Conqueror's corpse was said to have bloated so much by his funeral that they couldnt get him in his coffin, and during the service his bowels burst giving off a 'intolerable stench'.

This drawing is titled 'leakage of blood in early decomposition'. As a taphonomist, we call this 'active decay'. In this stage, microbes are eating the organs and skin causing ruptures. Our cells also decay, releasing acids that effectively digest themselves (autolysis)

The tissues have started to liquefy, and all sorts of decay juices leak out of the carcass. These fluids can create a little slime mound called a cadaver decomposition island (CDI). This picture also shows the invasion of fly larvae - lets just talk about that...

Did you know that scientists can study the insects on a rotting body to determine how long it's been dead for by looking at the type of bugs on the corpse and the growth of the larvae? This is called forensic entomology.

The body is starting to jellify now and is in 'advanced decay'. Importantly in this picture shows a taphonomists worst nightmare: scavengers. These animals will rip apart a carcass and speed up its decay.

Our next picture shows a skeleton without any soft-tissues. This is a little surprising because normally the scavengers will rip arms or legs off and cause the skeleton to fall apart...

... like in this picture! We call this skeletal disarticulation. If this skeleton was buried now it might make a nice fossil, but if not then bacteria and fungi will break down the bones. In a dry environment this may take years but in a damp environment days!

So this art is fascinating. But why? Why draw pictures of people rotting? Well it is based on a Buddhist teaching that "promotes meditation on the impurity of a decaying corpse as an aid to ardent devotees who wish to liberate themselves from sensual desires and affections"

One thing I have noticed is that many of these drawings are of beautiful or wealthy women (I havent seen any of decaying males). Here is another example of a decaying woman called "the death of a noble lady and the decay of her body"

One comment on this stated: "meditation is to remind the monks that this body, however noble by birth, or beautiful in physical form, is highly temporary and that all attachment to this body should be abandoned to experience peace and tranquility."

However, a paper in 2005 by Fusae Kanda suggested it's a lot darker than that. She suggested that these works were aimed at women as part of a social movement regarding female morality...

There are lots of this aspect of these painting I am still learning about. But from a taphonomic perspective, these drawings are incredible and very accurate in the stages of decay.

Thanks to my sources: strangeremains.com/2014/06/24/bod…

and you can read the fascinating Kanda (2005) paper here if you want: tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.108…