Gruesome Japanese Anatomical Illustrations

i-75fa6f7cebb4145668724f37f5a52b36-steve_icon_medium.jpgI love antique anatomical drawings of the brain. I even have a couple in my office that I should probably take a picture of to show off to you guys. These illustrations from Japan are particularly interesting. According to Pink Tentacle:

The Kaibo Zonshinzu anatomy scrolls, painted in 1819 by Kyoto-area physician Yasukazu Minagaki (1784-1825), consist of beautifully realistic, if not gruesome, depictions of scientific human dissection.

Unlike European anatomical drawings of the time, which tended to depict the corpse as a living thing devoid of pain (and often in some sort of Greek pose), these realistic illustrations show blood and other fluids leaking from subjects with ghastly facial expressions.

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-via boingboing-

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The drawings are really cool, but the thought of the artist having an oozing, half-dissected head on the table is not quite as cool. ;)

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