Cursed Womb: Death Paintings (受胎九相図 じゅたいくそうず) is the special grade cursed material stored in Tokyo Jujutsu Tech from Jujutsu Kaisen. Though it’s ranked special grade, it has such a sad history.
What is it?
It’s 9 dead bodies of fetuses mixed of human being and cursed spirit. They were made intendedly by the evilest curse user in history, Noritoshi Kamo 150 years ago.
Their names are:
1. Choso (張相 ちょうそう) *He is the eldest.
2. Eso (壊相 えそう)
3. Kechizu (血塗 けちず)
4. Noranso (膿爛相 のうらんそう)
5. Shouoso (青瘀相 しょうおそう)
6. Tanso (噉相 たんそう)
7. Sanso (散相 さんそう)
8. Kotsuso (骨相 こつそう)
9. Shoso (焼相 しょうそう)
How did Gege sensei get the idea of it?
Kusouzu (九相図 くそうず) is the old Japanese artwork (図) which consists of 9 (九) phases (相) of decomposition of a dead body. Usually, a female body left outside was drawn to observe how the body was decomposed to the bones. Kusozu is Buddhism artwork, and it was made to get rid of worldly desires.
9 Phases correspond to the names of the Cursed womb: Death Painting.
1st phase. Choso (張相 ちょうそう) The dead body gets inflamed from inside by the gas due to the decomposition.
2nd phase. Eso (壊相 えそう) As the decomposition of the body progresses, its skin starts to be torn and broken.
3rd phase. Kechizuso (血塗相 けちずそう) The damage of the body due to the decomposition progresses further and melted fat, blood and body fluid ooze out of the body.
4th phase. Noranso (膿爛相 のうらんそう) The body itself starts to melt due to the decomposition.
5th phase. Shouoso (青瘀相 しょうおそう) The body color turns dark blue.
6th phase. Tanso (噉相 たんそう) The body gets infested with bugs and devoured by animals and birds.
7th phase. Sanso (散相 さんそう) As the result, the parts of the body are scattered all around.
8th phase. Kotsuso (骨相 こつそう) the flesh is all gone and only the bones are left.
9th phase. Shoso (焼相 しょうそう) As the bones are burnt, its ashes are left.
For more details → Human Decomposition in Japanese Artwork by Amusing Planet
Cation! The linked page contains some paintings of dead bodies though they are artworks.
What’s the beginning of its history?
The tragedy began with a girl’s pregnancy about 150 years ago. She, herself, had no idea how but she got a baby of cursed spirit. And sadly, all her relatives came down hard on her and her baby. Then, to escape from them, she held her dead baby (the baby might have been killed by her relatives.) and ran into a temple. Unfortunately, the founder of the temple was Noritorshi Kamo.
Who is Noritoshi Kamo?
According to Utahime, the teacher of Kyoto Jujutsu Tech, Noritoshi Kamo (加茂 憲倫 かも のりとし) is “the evilest curse user in history and the blemish of the Kamo clans, one of 3 biggest Jujutsu families.
Note: Noritoshi Kamo in Kyoto Jujutsu Tech is the different person. The kanji in his name is different (加茂 憲紀 かも のりとし). He might have got the same name as the guy who was the blemish of the clam because his mother was a concubine.
Kamo’s curiosity got addicted to the baby of human and cursed spirit. And he made the girl pregnant with babies of cursed spirit 9 times and made her got abortion 9 times.
How did he do it?
There’s no record left so that nobody knows how Kamo made her pregnant with cursed spirit’s babies and what happened to her after then. However, Choso, one of the fetuses said that he got 3 parents; his mother, the cursed spirit as his father and Kamo who mixed his blood into Choso.
This is the story spoken to generations, but the truth was different. Kamo’s body was already taken over by another evil curse user Kenjaku (羂索 けんじゃく) by Kenjaku’s Jujutsu technique. So, the Cursed womb was really made by Kenjaku.
Who’s Kenjaku?
Kenjaku is a curse user living for at least 1,000 years with the Jujutsu technique of taking over one’s body. He has taken over the bodies of Noritoshi Kamo, Suguru Geto and maybe Yuji Itadori’s mother.
For more details about Kenjaku, see my article →What Is Kenjaku's Evil Plot? The Reason He Sealed Gojo【Jujutsu Kaisen】
What happened to the fetuses?
3 out of 9 bodies (Choso, Eso and Echizu) stored in Tokyo Jujutsu Tech were stolen by Mahito, the special grade cursed spirit. Mahito and Kenjaku made them incarnate forcibly into human bodies.
Kechizu and Eso met Yuji and Nobara accidentally at the Yasohachi bridge (八十八橋 やそはちばし) where they were sent to retrieve the Sukuna’s finger and were killed by them.
Choso, the oldest, fought with Yuji in the Shibuya incident. At the time, he saw the memory of him having meal with his brothers and Yuji was there,too. This memory doesn’t exist but he believes Yuji is one of his brothers and decided to cooperate with him.
Jujutsu technique
Eso and Kechizu: Rot Technique (蝕爛腐術 しょくらんふじゅつ Shokuran fujitsu)
If you take their blood into your body from a mucus membrane or a wound, they can activate their Jujutsu technique and the blood will be corroding your body to death.
Choso: Blood Manipulation (赤血操術 せっけつそうじゅつ Sekketsu soujutsu)
He uses the Jujutsu technique of the Kamo clan. With the Blood Manipulation technique, you can control your blood and a material your blood is on. The weak point of this technique is that you use your own blood so that amount of blood you and use is limited. However, since Choso, Eso and Kechizu are half human and half cursed spirit, lack of blood doesn’t happen to them unless they use up all their cursed energy.
As the secondary effect of the Jujutsu technique, he can sense if anything happens to his other brothers even if they are in distant places.
- Choso sensed the death of Eso and Kechizu in a distant place.
- He also sensed where other 6 brothers’ bodies were in Jujutsu Tech (The storage they were in were hidden by Master Tengen’s barrior.