Ono no Komachi was a recognized Japanese waka poet known for her literary achievements and her seductive beauty. She lived a peaceful life as a court woman during the Heian period (794 – 1185)....Show moreOno no Komachi was a recognized Japanese waka poet known for her literary achievements and her seductive beauty. She lived a peaceful life as a court woman during the Heian period (794 – 1185). Court women were commonly expected to be treated with respect, but little did she know, that she was used as a subject for kusōzu centuries after her death. Her kusōzu depicts her deceased body deserted in nature as it faces the ravishes of time and natural decomposition. In her life she may have enjoyed a noble existence, but in death, her female body has been degraded to an object of observation. As an aspect within medieval Buddhist art, kusōzu, are paintings that typically depict a female corpse in the process of the nine stages of decay. The nine stages include: newly deceased, distension, rupture, exudation of blood, putrefaction, discoloration and desiccation, consumption by birds and animals, skeleton and disjointing . The function behind these paintings was to aid men in the process of meditation by evoking feelings of disgust and releasing the viewer from sexual desires and any delusional attachments to the physical body . Buddhist monks believed that gazing at impure things would purify the mind of impure thoughts, thus paving the way towards enlightenment.Show less