National Treasures & Important Cultural Properties
of National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan

　The Ten Kings of Hell are ten judges of the behavior deceased people did in life and the Ten Kings decide where their soul should transcend. It was believed that prayers from their families or good deeds conducted by the deceased themselves would be taken into consideration to avoid being sent to the hell because of the judgment. This belief was established by the late Tang period and become popular in the Sung period in China. The belief in the Ten Kings did not remain only in China, coming down to the Korean Peninsula and Japan.
　There are three Chinese paintings that came to Japan that remain. It is believed to have been 10 paintings at that time. The name of the painter is apparent due to the signatures of Lu Zhongyuan (陸仲淵) written on two of them. Lu Zhongyuan was thought to have had a close relationship with Lu Xinzhong (陸信忠) from Ningbo, who had the same surname and left many paintings of the Ten Kings in the southern Sung period and the style of this painting is also similar to the style (Honenji Temple’s style) of paintings by Lu Xinzhong. The Lu (陸) family that lived a lay life in Ningbo seems to have made their studio to draw Buddhist paintings that fulfill the needs of people.
　Compared to existing paintings of the Ten Kings from the Sung period, these paintings represent hell in a lively and rich style on the bottom half. At the scene of the final judgment conducted by Godotenrin, a deceased (sinner) who has been released from hell is drawn. This scene seems to indicate that prayers and good deeds can even save sinners. It is hard to deny the roughness of the depiction, but these paintings are very important to represent the paintings of the Lu family as well as the beliefs of the time. These were handed down to the Morimura family.