Hell Scroll (Tokyo National Museum)

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Jigoku-Zoshi (Tokyo National Museum) Jigoku-Zoshi.jpg
Jigoku-Zoshi (Tokyo National Museum)

The Jigoku-zoshi ("Handscrolls of Buddhist Hell") is a late 12th-century Japanese scroll (emakimono, 絵巻物), depicting the 8 great hells and the 16 lesser hells in text and painting.

Naraka (Buddhism) Hell in buddhist mythologies.

Naraka (Sanskrit: नरक; Pali: निरय Niraya) is a term in Buddhist cosmology usually referred to in English as "hell" (or "hell realm") or "purgatory". The Narakas of Buddhism are closely related to diyu, the hell in Chinese mythology. A Naraka differs from the hell of Christianity in two respects: firstly, beings are not sent to Naraka as the result of a divine judgment or punishment; and secondly, the length of a being's stay in a Naraka is not eternal, though it is usually incomprehensibly long, from hundreds of millions to sextillions (1021) of years.

Scroll roll of papyrus, parchment, or paper containing writing

A scroll, also known as a roll, is a roll of papyrus, parchment, or paper containing writing.

<i>Emakimono</i> Japanese narrative handscroll

Emakimono, often simply called emaki (絵巻), is a horizontal, illustrated narrative form created during the 11th to 16th centuries in Japan. Emakimono combines both text and pictures, and is drawn, painted, or stamped on a handscroll. They depict battles, romance, religion, folk tales, and stories of the supernatural world.

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Kanō school school of Japanese painting, 15th till 19th Century

The Kanō school is one of the most famous schools of Japanese painting. The Kanō school of painting was the dominant style of painting from the late 15th century until the Meiji period which began in 1868, by which time the school had divided into many different branches. The Kanō family itself produced a string of major artists over several generations, to which large numbers of unrelated artists trained in workshops of the school can be added. Some artists married into the family and changed their names, and others were adopted. According to the historian of Japanese art Robert Treat Paine, "another family which in direct blood line produced so many men of genius ... would be hard to find".

Sesshū Tōyō Japanese artist

Sesshū Tōyō was the most prominent Japanese master of ink and wash painting from the middle Muromachi period. He was born into the samurai Oda family (小田家), then brought up and educated to become a Rinzai Zen Buddhist priest. However, early in life he displayed a talent for visual arts, and eventually became one of the greatest Japanese artists of his time, widely revered throughout Japan and China.

<i>Kakemono</i>

A kakemono, more commonly referred to as a kakejiku, is a Japanese hanging scroll used to display and exhibit paintings and calligraphy inscriptions and designs mounted usually with silk fabric edges on a flexible backing, so that it can be rolled for storage.

Hanging scroll type of scroll painting

A hanging scroll is one of the many traditional ways to display and exhibit Chinese paintings and calligraphy inscriptions and designs. The hanging scroll was displayed in a room for appreciation; it is to be distinguished from the handscroll, which was narrower and designed to be viewed flat on a table in sections and then stored away again.

<i>Nihonga</i> Paintings made in accordance with traditional Japanese artistic conventions

Nihonga are Japanese paintings from about 1900 onwards that have been made in accordance with traditional Japanese artistic conventions, techniques and materials. While based on traditions over a thousand years old, the term was coined in the Meiji period of Imperial Japan, to distinguish such works from Western-style paintings, or Yōga (洋画).

<i>Hell Scroll</i> (Nara National Museum)

Hell Scroll is a scroll depicting seven out of the sixteen lesser hells presented in Kisekyō. 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, Hell of Measures, Hell of the Iron Mortar, Hell of the Flaming Rooster, Hell of the Black Sand Cloud, Hell of Pus and Blood and Hell of Foxes and Wolves. It is considered likely that the scroll corresponds to the Paintings of the Six Paths commissioned by Emperor Goshirakawa in the 12th century. This handscroll was preserved in Daishō-in in Higashiokubo, Tokyo until the Meiji period, when it came into the hands of the Hara family of Kanagawa, later ending up in the possession of the Japanese government.

<i>Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga</i> emakimono

Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga, commonly shortened to Chōjū-giga, is a famous set of four picture scrolls, or emakimono, belonging to Kōzan-ji temple in Kyoto, Japan. The Chōjū-giga scrolls are also referred to as Scrolls of Frolicking Animals and Scrolls of Frolicking Animals and Humans in English. Some think that Toba Sōjō created the scrolls; however, it seems clear from the style that more than one artist is involved. The right-to-left reading direction of Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga is traditional in East Asia, and is still common in Japan. Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga is also credited as the oldest work of manga. The scrolls are now entrusted to the Kyoto National Museum and Tokyo National Museum.

Shigisan-engi

Shigisan-engi is an emakimono or painted handscroll made in the second half of the 12th century. The story details miracles which were attributed to the monk Myōren, who lived on Mount Shigi near Nara in Japan in the latter part of the 9th century.

Buddhist art in Japan

Buddhism played an important role in the development of Japanese art between the 6th and the 16th centuries. Buddhist art and Buddhist religious thought came to Japan from China through Korea and Buddhist art was encouraged by Crown Prince Shōtoku in the Suiko period in the sixth century and by Emperor Shōmu in the Nara period in the eighth century. In the early Heian period Buddhist art and architecture greatly influenced the traditional Shinto arts, and Buddhist painting became fashionable among wealthy Japanese. The Kamakura period saw a flowering of Japanese Buddhist sculpture, whose origins are in the works of Heian period sculptor Jōchō. The Amida sect of Buddhism provided the basis for many popular artworks. Buddhist art became popular among the masses via scroll paintings, paintings used in worship and paintings of Buddhas, saint's lives, hells and other religious themes. Under the Zen sect of Buddhism, portraiture of priests such as Bodhidharma became popular as well as scroll calligraphy and sumi-e brush painting.

Genji Monogatari Emaki emakimono by Fujiwara no Takayoshi

The Genji Monogatari Emaki (源氏物語絵巻), also called The Tale of Genji Scroll, is a famous illustrated hand scroll of the Japanese literature classic The Tale of Genji is from the 12th century, perhaps c. 1120–1140. The surviving sections, now broken up and mounted for conservation reasons, represent only a small proportion of the original work and are now divided between two museums in Japan, Tokugawa Art Museum and the Gotoh Museum, where they are only briefly exhibited, again for conservation reasons. Both groups are National Treasures of Japan. It is the earliest text of the work and the earliest surviving work in the Yamato-e tradition of narrative illustrated scrolls, which has continued to impact Japanese art, arguably up to the present day. The painted images in the scroll show a tradition and distinctive conventions that are already well developed, and may well have been several centuries in the making.

The handscroll is a long, narrow, horizontal scroll format in East Asia used for calligraphy or paintings. A handscroll usually measures up to several meters in length and around 25–40 cm in height. Handscrolls are generally viewed starting from the right end. This kind of scroll is intended to be read or viewed flat on a table, in sections. The format thus allows for the depiction of a continuous narrative or journey.

Extermination of Evil is a set of five paintings depicting traditional Asian deities banishing evil. The paintings are collectively listed as a National Treasure of Japan and held at the Nara National Museum.

<i>Murasaki Shikibu Diary Emaki</i> mid-13th century emaki, a Japanese picture scroll, inspired by the diary of Murasaki Shikibu

The Murasaki Shikibu Diary Emaki is a mid-13th century emaki, a Japanese picture scroll, inspired by the private diary (nikki) of Murasaki Shikibu, lady-in-waiting at the 10th/11th centuries Heian court and author of The Tale of Genji. This emaki belongs to the classical style of Japanese painting known as yamato-e and revives the iconography of the Heian period.

The Manichaean Diagram of the Universe is a Yuan dynasty silk painting describing the cosmology of Manichaeism, in other words, the structure of universe according to Manichaean vision. The painting is owned by an anonymous Japanese collector, it measures approximately 158 by 60 centimetres, and depicts the cosmic view of Manichaeism in vivid colours on a silk cloth.

<i>Sermon on Manis Teaching of Salvation</i> Yuan dynasty silk painting

Sermon on Mani's Teaching of Salvation is a Yuan dynasty silk hanging scroll, measuring 142 × 59 centimetres and dating from the 13th century, with didactic themes: a multi-scenic narrative that depicts Mani's Teachings about the Salvation combines a sermon subscene with the depictions of soteriological teaching in the rest of the painting.

<i>Manichaean Painting of the Buddha Jesus</i> Jesus Christ as a Manichaean Prophet

The Manichaean Painting of the Buddha Jesus (Chinese: 夷數佛幀; pinyin: Yí shù fó zhēn; Wade–Giles: I2-shu4 fo2-chên1; Japanese: キリスト聖像; rōmaji: Kirisuto Sei-zō; "Sacred Image of Christ"), is a Chinese Southern Song dynasty silk hanging scroll preserved at the Seiunji Temple in Kōshū, Yamanashi, Japan. It measures 153.5 cm in height, 58.7 cm in width, dates from the 12th to 13th centuries, and depicts a solitary nimbate figure on a dark-brown medieval Chinese silk. According to the Hungarian historian Zsuzsanna Gulácsi, this painting is one of the six documented Chinese Manichaean hanging scrolls from Zhejiang province from the early 12th century, which titled Yishu fo zhen (lit. "Silk Painting of the Buddha [Prophet] Jesus").

References

"Hell Scroll". Emuseum. National Institutes for Cultural Heritage. Retrieved 2010-11-08.