[Nine-Phase Pictures (of a Decaying Corpse)].
Picture scroll entitled, on manuscript paper label on outside, “Baō kusōshi emaki” 坡翁九想詩画巻 [“Mr. Su’s Poem on the Nine Stages of a Decaying Corpse, Illustrated Scroll”]. Ten narrative paintings, in brilliant & sometimes lurid color. Scroll (370 x 12,070 mm.), front outer endpaper of worn blue silk brocade, gold-speckled inner endpaper. [Japan]: late Edo.
Originating in China, the “nine stages of a decaying corpse” is a subject long popular in Buddhist art and poetry in Japan, where many scrolls and woodcut books have been executed on the subject, from about the 13th century until the present day. The... More