Bone Salad

Kosode with skeleton and autumn grasses motif. Culture: Japan, 1840–1860. Medium: Stencil-printed cotton. Collection: Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Human bones and autumn grasses, printed in white stencil on dark cotton, make up the main design of this kosode. Near the bottom, a long wooden board inscribed with traditional Japanese characters lies mixed among the bones. It's a traditional wooden grave marker -- a sotoba -- planted in the ground at Buddhist cemeteries. Long, slender-leafed Japanese pampas grass (susuki) surrounds the scattered bones, painted as if swaying in the wind. Known as nozarashi in Japanese culture, this composition depicts a human body exposed to the elements in an open field, becoming one with the earth over time.