Here is what Jujutsu Kaisen has disclosed thus far regarding the Death Paintings, especially how they relate to the sinister past of Kenjaku.
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Jujutsu Kaisen made its debut in 2018 and has since become one of the most popular shonen franchises ever. While the anime adaptation of the series is still captivating viewers in its second season, the manga is getting closer to what appears to be its last story, concluding many of the storylines involving its most well-known characters. The Cursed Womb: Death Paintings, whose relationship with Yuji Itadori has been hinted at since the Death Painting Arc, are one group of people who do, nevertheless, still play a significant part in the story.
The backstories of the characters in Jujutsu Kaisen are rarely explored in depth, therefore many details behind the production of the Cursed Womb: Death Paintings remain undiscovered. Nevertheless, the series has provided enough information about them to hint at their significance to the narrative, and as each story arc concludes, their significance to the jujutsu sorcery community grows.
The Cursed Womb: Death Paintings: What Are They?
One must first recognise the conditions behind the creation of the Cursed Womb: Death Paintings in order to comprehend them. An unidentified woman was shunned by her family after she inexplicably fell pregnant with a kid who was half human and half cursed around the start of Japan’s Meiji Era, which corresponded to the middle of the 19th century. The woman left her house and made her way to a temple where jujutsu was practised. It was there that she met Noritoshi Kamo, who is thought to be the most malevolent jujutsu practitioner ever. The Cursed Womb: Death Paintings’ mother was impregnated nine times under Kamo’s supervision, and each time the horrible jujutsu sorcerer killed her unborn children and kept the foetuses for further research.
Tokyo Jujutsu High would eventually acquire the Cursed Womb: Death Paintings over the course of the following 150 years, and the school conceals them deep within Tengen’s barrier technique. These half-human, half-curse foetuses were safely kept for decades, like most artefacts hidden within this barrier. However, during the Goodwill Exchange Event, Mahito breaches Tengen’s barrier, and the special-grade curse manages to steal three of them. Like Sukuna’s fingers and other cursed things, these Death Paintings are essentially safe until a human consumes them. After being swallowed, they fully assume control of their host’s body and fully manifest as autonomous beings with free will and the ability to act with self-awareness and agency.
The Cursed Womb: Yuji and Kenjaku's Connection to Death Paintings
Jujutsu Kaisen initially displays The Cursed Womb: Death Paintings soon after the Goodwill Exchange Event. While Mahito brings two of the Death Paintings to life, Nobara Kugisaki and Yuji Itadori fight a cursed ghost that is carrying one of Sukuna’s fingers while Megumi Fushiguro tackles the other. These two figures, Eso and Kechizu, have a hideous look, but they have a quality that cursed spirits do not often possess: a desire to forgo their own safety in order to ensure the protection of another. Since the two genuinely appear to regard one another as brothers, it is sense that Choso, the surviving sibling, would experience emotional distress upon learning of their passing. But in the most improbable of places, he finally befriends Yuji Itadori.
All Known Cursed Womb: Death Paintings
Choso
Eso
Kechizu
The aftermath of the Shibuya Incident culminates in the startling revelation that Noritoshi Kamo, the person responsible for Cursed Womb: Death Paintings, was under the influence of the same entity who takes up Suguru Geto’s body in Jujutsu Kaisen. This old sorcerer, known by the name Kenjaku, was involved in Yuji Itadori’s indeterminate birth, among many other things. Kenjaku once had control of Yuji’s mother’s body, as revealed in an odd flashback after the Shibuya Incident. This strongly suggests that the antagonist gave birth to the protagonist of the series. When Choso discovers this, he realises right away that Yuji and himself were both wronged by the same person. This leads to the Cursed Womb: Death Painting joining forces with the heroes of Jujutsu Kaisen. Given that Kenjaku used his blood to create the Death Paintings, there’s a good likelihood that Yuji and Choso truly have a sizable amount of DNA in common, making their connection one of the most bizarre in shonen history.
Because Jujutsu Kaisen tends to reject conventionality, it’s hard to know where its narrative will go. However, with Ryomen Sukuna and Kenjaku still posing a threat to the jujutsu world, there’s never been a better time to explore the potential of Cursed Womb: Death Paintings and Yuji Itadori. Although the cards are still stacked against the heroes of Jujutsu Kaisen, Kenjaku has left a trail of abandoned experiments in his wake, and it finally appears as though his twisted curiosity is biting him again.
Given his dual nature as a half-curse and half-human, Choso’s kinship with the other Cursed Womb: Death Paintings is maybe the most genuine in Jujutsu Kaisen. He and Yuji Itadori might really be able to come up with a strategy to take down the King of Curses, the most depraved sorcerer in the entire universe, if they can make the most of their location at the nexus of cursed spirits and jujutsu practitioners. Their final place in the narrative will only become clear with time, but given how long Choso and Yuji’s abilities and past have been hinted at, it’s almost a given that they will come into play sooner rather than later.