Respect & The Unbelievable Body Display
May 23, 2005
Yesterday we went to a more peculiar attraction than usual. At the Kyoto Cultural Museum was a great exhibition of 人体�?���?��?議展 or loosely translated, “The Unbelievable Human Body Display”. It’s basically a small exhibition of preserved human bodies arranged in a way to show different organ systems.
Something like a more morbid wax museum, people could see the nerve systems, muscle groups, cardiovascular, respiratory, and digestive systems up close in gory detail like never before. This exhibition has been touring Japan and we luckily caught the very last day of it. I found it interesting and fascinating. Because I used to read books on the human body as a kid (I was a weird kid) and because I watched The Learning Channel enough, I had a good clue on what was going on and why certain things looked in certain ways.
Maybe it was the last day of the exhibition or maybe the weird factor was high but the place was packed! We had to line up around the block in the rain to get in but it wasn’t too long a wait. What was annoying was actually in the museum, people were crowding around displays and pushing and shoving. I without fail become angry in these situations so I tried to see things from afar. My temper held.
What made me angry were the comments from some people. They were saying things like, “Ewww” “It stinks” “That’s ugly” etc. out loud. While I do agree that preserved corpses aren’t the most beautiful of items to see, I felt they should’ve respected the dead better. They donated their bodies for scientific pursuit and gave these onlookers a chance to see something they’ll almost never see. For this, they should not get disrespectful comments.
That’s my two cents.
If you’re in Kanazawa or Niigata, this display is coming! I’d try to catch it… and if it’s anything like Kyoto, go on a weekday morning to avoid the crowd. Go check out some of the stuff on display at the picture page.
May 23rd, 2005 at 16:32
Ah, I’ve heard of this exhibition. I wish it would come here, I’m sure it’s fascinating. The church folk would do everything to keep it from coming here though, I’d bet.
May 27th, 2005 at 15:20
Did you touch the one that wasn`t behind glass? I never would`ve thought that I`d ever stick my finger up someone`s esophagus!
May 27th, 2005 at 21:31
No I didn’t. I don’t think I’d like random strangers touching my long dead, well-preserved corpse, so I didn’t want to touch someone else’s.
May 28th, 2005 at 01:05
Two of my incredibly dedicated relatives (who were profs in China) left their bodies for scientific research. I don’t know if could handle random people touching my goods even though i’d be dead. I’d rather donate my organs.
After hearing Aaron’s stories, at least this exhibition never left their body parts on the roof of their cars only to be found later on by a random stranger strewn across a road…:)
May 28th, 2005 at 15:02
You had a whole dead body in front of you to stick your finger and and you put it in the esophagus? Dude, I’d totally stick it in the…
eye socket.
May 31st, 2005 at 13:54
Well, the body was in an upright position, so the eye socket was too high for me. That said, I DID notice a few Japanese women touching the model`s netherregions. I wouldn`t be suprised if that was the closest they`ve gotten to touching some in a LONG time.
May 31st, 2005 at 16:19
Haha. One body there was that of an athletic person. It was quite amazing to see the muscle fibers of someone who worked hard compared to one who didn’t.