is a scroll depicting seven out of the sixteen lesser hells presented in Kisekyō ("Sutra of the World Arising"). Six of the paintings are accompanied by text, which all begin with the phrase "There is yet another hell", following a description of what the sinners depicted did to end up in this particular hell. The seven hells depicted are: # the Hell of Excrement (: , ; : ) # the Hell of Measures (, ; ) # the Hell of the Iron Mortar (, ; ) # the Hell of the Flaming Rooster (, ; ) # the Hell of the Black Sand Cloud (, ; ) # the Hell of Pus and Blood (, ; ) # the Hell of Foxes and Wolves (, ; ) It is considered likely that the scroll corresponds to the Paintings of the Six Paths, commissioned by Emperor

Goshirakawa was the 77th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His de jure reign spanned the years from 1155 through 1158, though arguably he effectively maintained imperial power for almost thirty-seven years through the ''in ...

in the 12th century. This handscroll was preserved in Daishō-in in Higashiokubo,

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

until the

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

, when it came into the hands of the Hara family of Kanagawa, later ending up in the possession of the Japanese government.

The whole scroll

External links

Tokyo National Museum's page on the scrolls, with pictures and descriptions of the individual paintings

References

Buddhist paintings Naraka National Treasures of Japan Japanese paintings Paintings in the collection of the Nara National Museum 12th-century manuscripts 12th-century paintings {{Japan-reli-stub

The whole scroll

See also

External links

References