Terminology
If you've read through the examples, you might notice there's quite a bit of words to refer to anatomy models. "Mannequin" and "manikin" are particularly funny for being the same word ("little man"; but not the same thing as a homunculus), just one's French and the other Flemish/Dutch, and sort of mean the same thing but also not. Simplified, "mannequin" is a catch-all for human-representing objects, like anatomy models, and "manikin" is specific to anatomy models.In Japanese works, the obsolete Dutch word "kunstlijk" might show up. It's composed of "kunst" ("art", "artificial") and "lijk" ("corpse"). It fell out of use in the early 20th Century because the context of anatomy models as a replacement for actual corpses diminished as scientific progress made death less ubiquitous. The word entered the Japanese language with the 1868 purchase of one of Louis Thomas Jerome Auzoux's papier-mache models as part of plan to set up a medical educational center (this would later become Kanazawa University). Dutch terminology already had a foothold in Japanese medical science due to the Kaitai Shinsho being based on a Dutch translation of the Tabulae Anatomicae, but it helped that one of the first teachers of the center was a Dutchman named P.J.A. Slüys.
The rarity of female anatomy models
By far most anatomy models that show up in fiction are male, which is Truth in Television. For one, for the longest time it was considered improper to show off a woman in any state of undress, which is rather unavoidable with an anatomy model. For two, men's bodies were thought of as the default and women's an inconsequential aberration that didn't deserve the same level of attention.There are two types of anatomy models notable for favoring the female form, but they're not among the types found in fiction because they're not the types readily thought off when one imagines an anatomy model. The first are so-called anatomical venuses. These are Drop Dead Gorgeous statues in Reclining Venus pose of which the front torso can be removed to rummage around through the organ bits inside. They're often pregnant because the female reproductive system was what was of interest compared to the male configuration. Anatomical venuses are made of wax, but fancied up with real hair, glass eyes, and the like. They became a thing in the late 18th Century, but the general idea is a little older. Of note is Abraham Chovet's early 18th Century female model of wax with glass veins to show blood circulation. But people didn't like that one very much because it looked like it was in severe pain.
They other is a case of accidental but convenient Fanservice. In the late 1920s, the Deutsches Hygiene Museum in Dresden created the Transparent Man ("Glaserner Mensch"; "Glass Human"). This type of anatomy model is a transparent human form with a metal skeleton and the multi-material organs inside. It drew good attention, so a Transparent Woman was ordered and, well, Naked Woman on Display Round II. In the decades since, more Transparent Women have been produced than Transparent Men.
Incidentally, the statue Verity that adorns the harbour in Ilfracombe, Devon depicts a woman with a raised sword in her hands standing on several books. The left half is normal, the right half skinless. As with anatomical venuses, she's pregnant.
Western vs Asian history and fictional usage
For a quick rundown on the history of anatomy models, all paths start with actual bodies, usually from convicts. And yes, that's "bodies" as in "not necessarily corpses (yet)". The problem with bodies is that religious and moral objections might bar access and even if they are available they are representative for only a short time, so something reusable was needed to effectively pass on knowledge. (Overlay) charts came first, but weren't enough. In Europe, early strides were made in Italy using wax. 14th Century Alessandra Giliani is credited with perfecting a technique that involves injecting wax into the blood vessels of corpses. These would still decompose, but more slowly than an unattended corpse, and the loss of volume was lessened too. Gaetano Giulio Zumbo of the late 17th Century is credited as the creator of the first fully wax anatomy models. Wax would be the go-to material until plaster and plastic took over in the 20th Century, but other materials were in use too. Of note are the papier-mache models by Louis Thomas Jerome Auzoux that came into use in the early 19th Century. Some wax models also contained terracotta bits, and Felice Fontana chose to work with wood, his most spectacular piece taking ten years of labor.For some centuries, East Asia was medically ahead of Europe with two moments changing that. Firstly the cessation of dissections in China in the 13th Century and secondly the lack of a moment all of the old Common Knowledge was thrown out to make room for new observations, which in the West occured in 1543 with the De humani corporis fabrica by Andreas Vesalius. Small silk, wooden, or ivory models dating back to the 13th Century weren't improved on for a long time. Japan specifically was cut off from sharing in new knowledge with the 1639 lockdown, although a small opening was left for the Dutch, Chinese, and Koreans. This led to the creation of copper, lacquer, and wooden models some three decades later and the publication of the Kaitai Shinsho, an adaptation of the Tabulae Anatomicae, in 1774, which revolutionized Japanese anatomical science. During the 18th Century and 19th Century, wood was the material of choice for educational models, as introduced by Ryoetsu Hoshino and Bunken Kagami. In 1853, Japan started to open up to the rest of the world and with the new insights gained from this, anatomical models were produced on a larger scale using papier-mache, plaster or plastic. Kyoto was and is at the forefront of this.
