The Nine Stages of Decayある皇后の九相図
There is a unique tradition of Buddhist art called "kusozu" that vividly depicts the process of a body's decomposition in nine graphic stages.
Illustrating the impermanence of life, such images are meant to rid practicing monks of their worldly desires.
It is believed by some that the tradition originated when a certain empress consort of high renown requested to be laid in a field after her death, and for a series of portraits depicting her rotting corpse to be made for the spiritual instruction of others.
Thus spoke the empress consort, whose beauty was beyond compare, as the hour of her death neared:
"When I die, do not burn me, but lay my body in a field for birds and beasts to feast upon. May it serve as a reminder to those foolish, debauched monks and their ilk of the impermanence of all things, and rid them of the unhealthy appetites of the flesh."
絶世の美人であったある皇后は、死を前にして こう伝えた。 「私の死体は葬儀に出さず、 野に捨てて鳥や獣に与えなさい。 色欲に惑う愚かな僧やこの世に、無常を知らしめ 煩悩を払わせるのです」
Ugh! Dear me, what a foul stench! The flies and maggots have certainly had their day. A ghastly sight indeed...
But I am indebted to this once noble woman. Thanks to her, I have come to see how fleeting life, beauty, and the flesh really are, how it all just melts away... O, may your soul take refuge in the eternal Law of Buddha!
Well well, so this is the body of the empress consort I have heard so much about...
It is hard to imagine this is the same woman that her portraits depict. She was a beautiful woman, indeed, she was like a goddess. But I now see that all of us are the same when the flesh falls off our bones.
To honor her majesty's dying wish, I have made this series of paintings depicting the nine stages of decay that her cadaver underwent...
Our flesh is, in the end, but a vessel for the soul. Whoever be startled by this mundane thought is surely a long way from attaining enlightenment.
I only hope that this moral be remembered by any monk who chooses to meditate upon these images.
- Where
- Rokudo-chinnoji Temple district
- Map
- Eastern Kyoto
- Region
- Eastern Kyoto
- Hand in to
- Lady Murasaki, Yasaka Shrine
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