Inner Workings of the Human Body Creatively Illustrated in 19th Century Japanese Woodblock Prints

From the 17th to the 19th century, ukiyo-e was the popular art form in Japan. This form of Japanese woodblock print art was often educational, featuring anatomical prints to promote good health as it attempted to explain our internal workings:

Long before animated monsters warned us about our mucus-filled chests, Japanese artists like Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865) filled the guts of these men and women with little workers, making sure the human body worked like a functioning village or town.

In the print above, Inshoku Yojo Kagami (“Mirror of the Physiology of Drinking and Eating”), a man dines on fish and drinks sake.

Inside, little men scurry about a pool wrapped in intestines, stoke a fire under the heart, all the while a scholar keeps reference materials nearby. Down below lonely figures guard the “urine gate” and the “feces gate,” surely one of the worst jobs in all the body economy.

Open Culture features the different ukiyo-e prints and how they illustrate the human body.

Image Credit: Utagawa Kunisada, unknown student of Kunisada’s


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