[Buddha-l] Comic (macabre?) relief

[JKirkpatrick]

 After some of the heavy topics recently, perhaps some comic (or
macabre) relief is called for. Here, Joanna, some temple
treasures not yet on ebay.

http://www.weirdasianews.com/2009/09/16/demons-lurk-halls-japans-
buddhist-temples/

Enjoy.

Dan 

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This website seems to be cultivating a mystery tour of the
decrepit arts.
Check out these other links: 
Footprints in Wood Tell Story of Buddhist Monk's Prayers 
Crocodiles calmed by Buddhist Sutras 
Japan Holds Annual Pig Rodeo 
Marriage-Hunting Bra Heats Up Courtship in Japan

Back to the article: The starter 3-faced demon mask reminds me
that some fully tattooed yakuza arranged for their skins to be
flayed after death, having borrowed money on the contract before
their demise, and the tat art preserved for sale if need be. I
suspect that this "demon head" was cobbled together from flayed
human corpse heads. If the skin is properly treated, it can be
made flexible enough to stretch it into ghastly shapes with eye
socket relocation, false fangs supplied. Sort of like what one
can do with Photoshop. 

One of the better books on Japanese tattoo art--Fellman, Sandi &
D.M. Thomas. _The Japanese Tattoo._ NY: Abbeville Press, 1986,
says: "...irezumi [down on their luck] sell their bodies to
institutions staffed by doctors specially trained in
decortication." They remove the skin (after the guy dies, of
course) and preserve it such that it can be sold to private
collectors or to a museum. The author says that, "I was given a
special tour of the largest collection, one hundred specimens,
lodged at Tokyo University's Pathology Department...Occasionally
these items come up for auction, and one example of a half-body
tattoo a few years ago went for fifty thousand dollars."
(Ibid:18)

Such could be the fate of antique monk mummies from closed
temples, one clothed specimen of which can be seen on the link
Dan supplied. These monks mummified their bodies progressively by
taking various herbs and poisons so that when they eventually
died from the cumulative effects, their bodies had already been
mummified.
The ultimate in ascetic practice, while maintaining the illusion
of everlasting piety?

And now, if ya'll will forgive me, I'll add that I just came
across a short story by A. Conan Doyle in an old, broken-down
bound volume of _Harpers Monthly Magazine_, 1892, that I keep as
a memento of the grandparental era. It's about an Oxford
Orientalist student (a la Edward Said) who has an Egyptian mummy
in his lodgings, acquired at an auction of rarities. The title is
"Lot 249."  I leave it to your imaginations to figure out what
the story is about.   

Best, JK