Fantastic 1819 Anatomic Illustrations by Kyoto Physician Yasukazu Minagaki

The Tohoku University Library in Japan provides an online display of the painfully-real Kaibo Zonshinzu anatomy scrolls created in 1819 by Kyoto-area physician Yasukazu Minagaki. The style of these medical drawings is markedly different than the more sanitized approach favored in Western countries (see: Kaibo Zonshinzu Anatomy Scrolls Online).

More details about the these Japanese anatomic drawings are supplied at the Pink Tentacle (see: Kaibo Zonshinzu anatomy scrolls (1819):

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. The fact that the bodies used in scientific autopsies in Edo-period Japan generally belonged to heinous criminals executed by decapitation adds to the grisly nature of the illustrations.

These works of medicine and art from 1819 are worth a look and somewhat shocking even for physicians who may have been trained using Gray's Anatomy, now available on-line. The online display of the drawings requires you to click the "left arrow" to navigate through the scroll.