In traditional Buddhist teachings, contemplating about death is an integral part of meditation.
Below: Body of a courtesan in nine stages of decomposition.
Ink and color on silk, circa 1870s.
In Buddhism, overcoming sexual desire is a necessary step towards achieving enlightenment.
Not only men, women too were asked to meditate on the repulsive aspects of their own body.
However, the visual depiction of this theme is a specifically Japanese adaptation.
Below: The death of a noble lady and the decay of her body.
In the fourth painting, putrefaction has just begun.
Here her body is decaying in the advanced stages of putrefaction.
The putrefying body is now carrion for scavenging birds and small animals.
The flesh has almost all decayed revealing the skeleton.
There are wisteria flowers in blossom above her body.
Only a few fragments of bone, including the skull and fragments of rib.
hand and vertebrae remain visible.
The final image is of a memorial structure upon which her Buddhist death-name is inscribed in Sanskrit.
