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

This illustrated handscroll consists of seven painted scenes, six of which are accompanied by text. The scenes are based on descriptions of the 16 sub-hells (Skt. utsada) listed in the Sutra on the Origins of the World (J. Kise kyō; P. Aggañña sutta), which was translated into Chinese by the Indian monk Jñānagupta (523–600) during the Sui dynasty (581–618). According to the sutra, the Eight Great Hells are neighbored by 16 sub-hells: (1) Black Sand Cloud (黒雲沙), (2) Excrement (糞屎泥), (3) Five-Pronged Pinions (五叉), (4) Starvation (飢餓), (5) Searing Thirst (燋渇), (6) Pus and Blood (膿血), (7) One Bronze Cauldron (一銅釜), (8) Many Bronze Cauldrons (多銅釜), (9) Iron Mortar (鉄磑), (10) Measuring (凾量), (11) The Flaming Rooster (鶏), (12) River of Ashes (灰河), (13) Dis memberment (斫截), (14) Sword-Leaf Forest (剣葉), (15) Foxes and Wolves (狐狼), and (16) Freezing Ice (寒氷). The seven extant hells in this work appear in a rearranged order: 2, 10, 9, 11, 1, 6, and 15. A depiction of the seventh hell, the Hell of One Bronze Cauldron, is owned by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (The Burning Cauldron) and is thought to have originally been part of this handscroll. Further, some scholars think the seventh scene in this segment does not depict the Hell of Foxes and Wolves from the Sutra on the Origins of the World, but rather depicts the Hell of Wolf Demons (狼野干泥梨) from the Sutra of the Great Conflagration (J. Dairōtan kyō; Ch. Daloutan jing; Skt. Lokasthāna sūtra).

Each section of the text begins with the phrase, “There is yet another hell,” which is followed by the relevant portion of the Sutra on the Origins of the World as well as the nature of the sins that caused these transgressors to be reborn in that particular hell.

The paintings are executed in fluid lines painted in a restricted palette of dark colors. They have an air of heaviness overall but are also imbued with a certain transcendental calmness. Some of the styles, like that of the Hell of the Iron Mortar, resemble those found in the frontispieces of the Chūsonji Canon, while others, like the Hell of the Flaming Rooster, show distinct influences from Chinese paintings of the Song dynasty (960–1279). Extant illustrated handscrolls depicting the six realms of rebirth include other segments of the Tales of the Buddhist Hells, Tales of the Buddhist Hells for Fallen Monks, Tales of Hungry Ghosts, The Extermination of Evil, and Diseases and Deformities. Among them, this work has the most elaborate style.

These illustrated handscrolls of the six realms probably correspond to those mentioned in textual sources as having been commissioned by Emperor Go-Shirakawa (1127–1192) and stored in the treasure house of Rengeō-in Temple.

This handscroll was preserved at Daishō-in Temple in Tokyo until the Meiji era (1868–1912) and then owned by the Hara family of Kanagawa Prefecture before entering the possession of the national government. The work is one of the most celebrated of those depicting the six realms along with the Tokyo National Museum’s Hell Scroll (formerly owned by Anju-in Temple, Okayama Prefecture).