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The Inflatable, Collapsible Kingdom of Retributi<strong>on</strong>: A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Primer</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong><br />
<strong>Japanese</strong> <strong>Hell</strong> <strong>Imagery</strong> <strong>and</strong> Imaginati<strong>on</strong><br />
Caroline Hirasawa<br />
M<strong>on</strong>umenta Nipp<strong>on</strong>ica, Volume 63, Number 1, Spring 2008, pp. 1-50 (Article)<br />
Published by Sophia University<br />
DOI: 10.1353/mni.0.0018<br />
For additi<strong>on</strong>al informati<strong>on</strong> about this article<br />
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/mni/summary/v063/63.1.hirasawa.html<br />
Access Provided by <strong>Occidental</strong> College at 05/16/12 10:34PM GMT
The Inflatable, Collapsible Kingdom<br />
of Retributi<strong>on</strong><br />
A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Primer</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Japanese</strong> <strong>Hell</strong> <strong>Imagery</strong><br />
<strong>and</strong> Imaginati<strong>on</strong><br />
CAROLINE HIRASAWA<br />
IMAGINATIONS of hell appeared in <strong>Japanese</strong> literature, painting, <strong>and</strong> performance<br />
beginning in the classical period. 1 Gruesome depicti<strong>on</strong>s <strong>and</strong> accounts<br />
of an infernal afterlife cauti<strong>on</strong>ed laymen to lead upst<strong>and</strong>ing lives, promoted<br />
rites <strong>on</strong> behalf of sufferers, <strong>and</strong> exhorted m<strong>on</strong>ks to obey the precepts. Narrati<strong>on</strong>s<br />
of an infallibly fair process of judgment reassured <strong>and</strong> threatened that, whatever<br />
we may get away with in this world, mechanisms ensuring perfect justice await<br />
us in the next. Postulati<strong>on</strong>s that we determine our own misery in hell guaranteed<br />
redress; an experience of the pains we inflict <strong>on</strong> others in life rebounds in the<br />
afterlife.<br />
Such explicati<strong>on</strong>s ascribed management of the process of retributi<strong>on</strong> to both<br />
external <strong>and</strong> internal forces. Numerous characterizati<strong>on</strong>s of damnati<strong>on</strong> in the<br />
Buddhist can<strong>on</strong> set out threats combined with moral instructi<strong>on</strong>; they describe<br />
THE AUTHOR is assistant professor of <strong>Japanese</strong> art history at the University of British Columbia.<br />
She is indebted to Fukue Mitsuru, Adam Kabat, Fabio Rambelli, Takasu Jun, Melinda Takeuchi,<br />
<strong>and</strong> the an<strong>on</strong>ymous readers for advice <strong>and</strong> other support of this project. She expresses her gratitude<br />
also to the temples, libraries, <strong>and</strong> museums that granted permissi<strong>on</strong> to reproduce works in<br />
their collecti<strong>on</strong>s. Unless otherwise noted, translati<strong>on</strong>s are the author’s. Titles of Chinese translati<strong>on</strong>s<br />
of sutras <strong>and</strong> commentaries from Indic languages are rendered with Chinese pr<strong>on</strong>unciati<strong>on</strong>,<br />
since Chinese cultural <strong>and</strong> linguistic influences transformed the texts <strong>and</strong> since they impacted<br />
Japan in translati<strong>on</strong>, but <strong>Japanese</strong> readings are used for terms, including the names of deities,<br />
deriving from those texts. Dates are approximated in c<strong>on</strong>sultati<strong>on</strong> with Bussho kaisetsu daijiten<br />
<strong>and</strong> Daizôkyô zenkaisetsu daijiten, as are <strong>Japanese</strong> pr<strong>on</strong>unciati<strong>on</strong>s. To save space, the full titles<br />
<strong>and</strong> characters for works published in Taishô shinshû daizôkyô<br />
have been omitted<br />
from the reference list <strong>and</strong> placed instead in the notes.<br />
1 On <strong>Japanese</strong> Buddhist c<strong>on</strong>cepti<strong>on</strong>s of hell, see Ishida 1998; Jigoku no sekai; Kawamura 2000,<br />
etc. For an introducti<strong>on</strong> to the history of <strong>Japanese</strong> hell painting, see Miya 1988; <strong>and</strong> Kasuya<br />
Makoto in Kokuhô rokudô-e. Published as this article was nearing completi<strong>on</strong>, Kasuya’s<br />
chapter surveys the development of rokudô-e <strong>and</strong> overlaps with some of the material here.<br />
His approach, however, differs, <strong>and</strong> his work is recommended for readers interested in further<br />
pursuing this topic.<br />
M<strong>on</strong>umenta Nipp<strong>on</strong>ica 63/1: 1–50<br />
©2008 Sophia University
2<br />
M<strong>on</strong>umenta Nipp<strong>on</strong>ica 63:1<br />
judgment <strong>and</strong> retributi<strong>on</strong> as occurring in actual places, precisely located in<br />
Buddhist cosmologies, <strong>and</strong> the experience of punishment as physical. The same<br />
range of sources simultaneously describe hell as provisi<strong>on</strong>al. They explain that<br />
delusi<strong>on</strong>s arising from attachment, evil deeds, <strong>and</strong> the resultant karma cause us<br />
to hallucinate or fabricate an entire kingdom dedicated to the task of ascertaining<br />
<strong>and</strong> administering suitable punishment. We can appropriate or enlist the power<br />
to disassemble hell’s foundati<strong>on</strong>s in our minds, thereby vanquishing the entire<br />
bloodcurdling apparatus. These visceral <strong>and</strong> transcendent c<strong>on</strong>ceptualizati<strong>on</strong>s<br />
coexisted <strong>and</strong> competed. As the most extreme example of the suffering incurred<br />
by existence, hell repeatedly was engineered <strong>and</strong> displayed in texts <strong>and</strong> images<br />
that attested to its c<strong>on</strong>crete substantiality—<strong>and</strong> then was systematically eclipsed.<br />
Occupying a relative positi<strong>on</strong> within a larger system, hell was always tied to salvati<strong>on</strong>,<br />
but its relati<strong>on</strong>ship to salvati<strong>on</strong> shifted over time. This evoluti<strong>on</strong> was not<br />
linear. Old forms persisted, died out, <strong>and</strong> reappeared with new force.<br />
In spite of this c<strong>on</strong>tinual rec<strong>on</strong>figurati<strong>on</strong>, c<strong>on</strong>sistent premises governed imaginati<strong>on</strong>s<br />
of this realm. Distincti<strong>on</strong>s were made between what m<strong>on</strong>ks studied <strong>and</strong><br />
what they taught to save others, but fundamentally clerics <strong>and</strong> comm<strong>on</strong>ers shared<br />
the same ambiguous paradigms. <strong>Hell</strong>’s terrors were a st<strong>and</strong>ard comp<strong>on</strong>ent of the<br />
worldview of m<strong>on</strong>astics, while, as hell increasingly passed into the public domain<br />
during the Edo period, dynamic, transcendent resp<strong>on</strong>ses to hell ideology flourished<br />
in the print culture produced <strong>and</strong> avidly c<strong>on</strong>sumed by lay comm<strong>on</strong>ers.<br />
<strong>Hell</strong>’s familiarity bred subversive uses of its structures <strong>and</strong> led to other spirited<br />
appropriati<strong>on</strong>s. Some popular reinventi<strong>on</strong>s even came to rival the sophisticated<br />
doctrinal <strong>and</strong> ritual formulati<strong>on</strong>s of generati<strong>on</strong>s of Buddhist intellectuals.<br />
Geography<br />
Originating in India, c<strong>on</strong>cepti<strong>on</strong>s of hell picked up new attributes <strong>and</strong> finer delineati<strong>on</strong><br />
as they migrated across China <strong>and</strong> Korea. Although the chr<strong>on</strong>ological<br />
development of noti<strong>on</strong>s of hell in Hindu, Jain, <strong>and</strong> Buddhist thought <strong>on</strong> the subc<strong>on</strong>tinent<br />
is difficult to determine, the sparse descripti<strong>on</strong>s in early texts clearly<br />
c<strong>on</strong>tain seeds of later elaborati<strong>on</strong>s. 2 In Chinese translati<strong>on</strong>s of Indian sutras <strong>and</strong><br />
commentaries that circulated widely in Japan, hell functi<strong>on</strong>ed as part of an<br />
immense cosmology. Its c<strong>on</strong>tours vary greatly from text to text; here we will<br />
c<strong>on</strong>centrate <strong>on</strong> characterizati<strong>on</strong>s from the often-c<strong>on</strong>sulted fourth- to fifth-century<br />
Buddhist encyclopedia, Apidamo jushe lun<br />
(Jp. Abidatsuma<br />
kusha r<strong>on</strong>, hereafter Jushe lun). 3<br />
Seven rings of mountain ranges divided by seas surround an enormous mountain<br />
called Myôkôsen (a.k.a. Shumisen ). A vast ocean encompasses<br />
the outer, seventh range. This sea, bounded by an eighth rim of mountains called<br />
Tetsurin’isen (also Tetchisen ), c<strong>on</strong>tains four c<strong>on</strong>tinents in the car-<br />
2 On hell’s early development, see Sadakata 1990, pp. 144–60.<br />
3 On the cosmology described in Jushe lun <strong>and</strong> Apidamo dapiposha lun<br />
(Jp. Abidatsuma daibibasha r<strong>on</strong>), see Sadakata 1973. On descripti<strong>on</strong>s of hell’s locati<strong>on</strong> in other<br />
texts, see Ishida 1985, pp. 58–65.
HIRASAWA: The Inflatable, Collapsible Kingdom 3<br />
dinal directi<strong>on</strong>s around Myôkôsen. The southern c<strong>on</strong>tinent is the world we live<br />
in, Senbushû . These water <strong>and</strong> l<strong>and</strong> masses rest up<strong>on</strong> a golden disc that<br />
sits up<strong>on</strong> a water disc supported by a wind disc. 4 Dozens of heavens occupy<br />
stages al<strong>on</strong>g Myôkôsen <strong>and</strong> float above the mountain at increasingly astr<strong>on</strong>omical<br />
altitudes. Measurement of this universe is calculated in units called yuzenna<br />
(or yujun ). 5 The seas are eighty thous<strong>and</strong> yuzenna deep, <strong>and</strong> Myôkôsen<br />
rises eighty thous<strong>and</strong> yuzenna above sea level. Eight great hells (hachi<br />
daijigoku ) lie beneath Senbushû, listed from top to bottom as Tôkatsu<br />
jigoku (<strong>Hell</strong> of Revival), Kokujô jigoku (<strong>Hell</strong> of Black Ropes),<br />
Shugô jigoku (<strong>Hell</strong> of Assembly), Gôkyô jigoku (<strong>Hell</strong> of<br />
Screams), Daikyô jigoku (Great <strong>Hell</strong> of Screams), Ennetsu jigoku<br />
(<strong>Hell</strong> of Incinerati<strong>on</strong>), Dainetsu jigoku (Great <strong>Hell</strong> of Incinerati<strong>on</strong>),<br />
<strong>and</strong> Muken jigoku (<strong>Hell</strong> of No Interval). 6 The distance from the bottom<br />
of Senbushû (eighty thous<strong>and</strong> yuzenna below sea level) down to the ceiling of<br />
Muken jigoku measures twenty thous<strong>and</strong> yuzenna. This deepest hell is another<br />
twenty thous<strong>and</strong> yuzenna deep <strong>and</strong> wide. Sixteen satellite hells surround the<br />
gates of each great hell; there are also an additi<strong>on</strong>al eight cold hells. 7<br />
Other texts claim four, six, ten, eighteen, thirty, forty-six, or sixty-four hells<br />
(etc.), but many agree <strong>on</strong> eight. 8 Some works describe their layout horiz<strong>on</strong>tally.<br />
Shiji jing (Jp. Seiki kyô), included within Chang ahan jing (Jp.<br />
Jôag<strong>on</strong> gyô), for example, characterizes the tremendous ring of mountains that<br />
bounds our world as two ranges, <strong>on</strong>e nested within the other. Neither sun nor<br />
mo<strong>on</strong> shine into the space between them, which is the locati<strong>on</strong> of eight great<br />
hells, each equipped with sixteen small hells. Here a wind howls, so powerful,<br />
scorching, <strong>and</strong> putrid that if it blew into our world it would send mountains flying<br />
through the air, <strong>and</strong> parch <strong>and</strong> powder everything to smithereens. 9<br />
Further complicating the picture, Pure L<strong>and</strong> cosmologies that developed with<br />
the rise of Mahâyâna Buddhism refer to countless buddha l<strong>and</strong>s in every directi<strong>on</strong>,<br />
the destinati<strong>on</strong> of all who attain buddhahood. 10 Despite the infinite possibilities<br />
of this exploded universe, <strong>on</strong>ly a few of these l<strong>and</strong>s warranted detailed<br />
4 T 29:57a–c.<br />
5 Jushe lun describes <strong>on</strong>e yuzenna as equal to eight kurusha (T 29:62b). The calculati<strong>on</strong><br />
of <strong>on</strong>e kurusha here may work out to eight or nine hundred meters. Measurements of yuzenna<br />
in other texts differ.<br />
6 T 29:41a. Translati<strong>on</strong>s from Sanskrit into Chinese vary, some prioritizing pr<strong>on</strong>unciati<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong><br />
others meaning. The deepest Avîci hell, for example, was transliterated as Abi or the meaning<br />
was indicated as Muken , “no interval.” See Jushe lun for Muken as the definiti<strong>on</strong> of Abi;<br />
T 29:58b. Likewise, the Indian word for hell or “place of torment,” naraka, was rendered as naraka<br />
(also naraku ) or as jigoku , “earth pris<strong>on</strong>” or “underground pris<strong>on</strong>.” Such afterlife<br />
pris<strong>on</strong>s had purgatorial aspects, but to indicate the intensity of the punishments administered,<br />
this article uses the word “hell.”<br />
7 T 29:58a–59a.<br />
8 See Xiao 1989, pp. 175–203.<br />
9 T 1:121c, 125bc. This text, dating back roughly to the sec<strong>on</strong>d century B.C.E., also describes<br />
another set of ten hells. On this work, see Matsumura 1990.<br />
10 See, for example, Wuliangshou jing (Jp. Muryôju kyô); T 12:278c.
4<br />
M<strong>on</strong>umenta Nipp<strong>on</strong>ica 63:1<br />
descripti<strong>on</strong>. One of these became a comm<strong>on</strong> subject of text <strong>and</strong> painting as an<br />
afterlife objective: the Buddha Amida’s (Sk. Amitâyus or Amitâbha)<br />
Western Paradise (Saihô gokuraku ) or Pure L<strong>and</strong> (Jôdo ). 11 Early<br />
texts do not specify the relati<strong>on</strong>ship between hell <strong>and</strong> the Pure L<strong>and</strong>, but they<br />
were routinely paired in later eras. The accumulati<strong>on</strong> of geographies gave rise<br />
to many discrepancies. The dynamics of karma, however, trumped logistics.<br />
Zhengfa nianchu jing (Jp. Shôbô nenjo kyô), an enduringly influential<br />
treatise <strong>on</strong> the nature <strong>and</strong> repercussi<strong>on</strong>s of karma, for example, describes<br />
how internal impetuses manifest as physical circumstances. 12 The text explains<br />
damnati<strong>on</strong> with a metaphor comparing the heart-mind or its workings to a skilled<br />
painter who creates hell <strong>and</strong> other realms of transmigrati<strong>on</strong> just as artists c<strong>on</strong>jure<br />
up worlds through their paintings. “Black karma,” evil acts that bring <strong>on</strong> the recompense<br />
of suffering, leads the heart’s painter to take up black pigment to depict<br />
hell with black ir<strong>on</strong> walls <strong>and</strong> people bound <strong>and</strong> burnt until their bodies are blackened.<br />
One’s own karma creates this “painting,” not any<strong>on</strong>e else’s acti<strong>on</strong>s. 13 C<strong>on</strong>templati<strong>on</strong><br />
of the heart-painter’s operati<strong>on</strong> encourages readers to strive for the<br />
eliminati<strong>on</strong> of all acts, good or evil, that perpetuate reincarnati<strong>on</strong>. 14 The text<br />
treats other realms of rebirth similarly, but its most c<strong>on</strong>vincing argument against<br />
transmigrati<strong>on</strong> depends up<strong>on</strong> extensive, vivid descripti<strong>on</strong>s of hell. Zhengfa<br />
nianchu jing inspired many efforts to c<strong>on</strong>vey these descripti<strong>on</strong>s in visual form.<br />
Visual Interpretati<strong>on</strong>s<br />
Notwithst<strong>and</strong>ing numerous textual descripti<strong>on</strong>s, no Indian images of hell seem<br />
to have survived the ages. Pinaiye zashi (Jp. Binaya zôji), an explanati<strong>on</strong><br />
of miscellaneous matters in the vinaya, the rules governing m<strong>on</strong>astic life,<br />
c<strong>on</strong>tains instructi<strong>on</strong>s for the placement of hell imagery in m<strong>on</strong>asteries. Descripti<strong>on</strong>s<br />
of imagery in it resemble what is left of a fifth-century painting at Ajaṅṫâ<br />
of a “wheel of the five realms of birth <strong>and</strong> death” (goshu shôji no rin ),<br />
but the image is too severely damaged to ascertain how it may have depicted hell. 15<br />
It is impossible to pinpoint when Indian ideas about hell first began to influence<br />
Chinese culture. We know that Buddhism was introduced to China around the<br />
first century C.E., translati<strong>on</strong> of Mahâyâna sutras <strong>and</strong> commentaries into Chinese<br />
commenced in the sec<strong>on</strong>d century, many texts were translated during the fourth<br />
<strong>and</strong> fifth centuries, <strong>and</strong> Chinese c<strong>on</strong>cepti<strong>on</strong>s of hell were well established during<br />
11 Other famous buddha l<strong>and</strong>s bel<strong>on</strong>g to the buddhas Ashuku (Sk. Akṡobhya), Yakushi<br />
(Sk. Bhaiṡajyaguru), <strong>and</strong> Dainichi (Sk. Mahâvairocana).<br />
12 The sec<strong>on</strong>d century C.E. Sanskrit original does not survive. On this dating, see Mizuno 1996,<br />
p. 289.<br />
13 T 17:23c.<br />
14 T 17:135b.<br />
15 See Pinaiye zashi (Genben shuoyiqieyoubu pinaiye zashi , Jp.<br />
K<strong>on</strong>p<strong>on</strong> setsuissaiubu binaya zôji), a Sarvâstivâdan-school text, at T 24:283ab. The dating is<br />
unknown, but Yijing translated it into Chinese in 710. The painting is in Cave 17. See Teiser<br />
2006, pp. 76–103. Images of hell dating from the seventh through the tenth centuries also survive<br />
at Kizil, Borobudur (Barabuḋur), Bezeklik, <strong>and</strong> elsewhere. See Takata 1969, pp. 291–96.
HIRASAWA: The Inflatable, Collapsible Kingdom 5<br />
the Sui (581–619) <strong>and</strong> Tang (618–907) dynasties. Extant Chinese images indicating<br />
hell date back to the early sixth century, 16 <strong>and</strong> Xu gaoseng zhuan<br />
(Jp. Zoku kôsô den), a collecti<strong>on</strong> of biographies of prominent m<strong>on</strong>ks originally<br />
compiled by Daoxuan (596–667), tells how seeing hell imagery at a temple<br />
as a youth propelled the m<strong>on</strong>k Jing’ai (534–578) to renounce the world. 17<br />
Lidai minghua ji (Jp. Rekidai meiga ki), a history of Chinese painting<br />
compiled by Zhang Yanyuan in the ninth century, menti<strong>on</strong>s hell paintings<br />
<strong>on</strong> the walls of temples in Chang’an <strong>and</strong> Luoyang, including hell imagery<br />
rendered by the famous eighth-century painter Wu Daoxuan . 18<br />
Chinese translati<strong>on</strong>s of the Buddhist can<strong>on</strong> officially began entering Japan via<br />
the Korean peninsula in the sixth century. By the first half of the ninth century,<br />
when the Buddhist didactic story collecti<strong>on</strong> Nih<strong>on</strong> ryôiki was compiled,<br />
imported ideas about the afterlife had taken their place al<strong>on</strong>gside older<br />
<strong>Japanese</strong> beliefs. The textual record of hell painting predates most surviving<br />
images; Nih<strong>on</strong> ryôiki menti<strong>on</strong>s a painting of the rokudô (“six realms”), 19<br />
<strong>and</strong> other sources, too, refer to now-lost hell imagery. Recalling Chinese accounts,<br />
a biography of S<strong>on</strong>’i (866–940), who later became an abbot of the<br />
Tendai sect, relates:<br />
[W]hen S<strong>on</strong>’i was eleven years old he went to Yoshida temple <strong>on</strong> the east<br />
side of the Kamo river. There <strong>on</strong> a wall behind a buddha [image], he encountered<br />
a painting of hell c<strong>on</strong>taining illustrati<strong>on</strong>s of sinners undergoing torture.<br />
Up<strong>on</strong> seeing this, he immediately discarded his playful ways <strong>and</strong> determined to<br />
enter a mountain [m<strong>on</strong>astery]. 20<br />
Screen paintings of hell were used during rituals for expiating sin, now referred<br />
to as Butsumyô-e , 21 c<strong>on</strong>ducted at the palace every twelfth m<strong>on</strong>th beginning<br />
in the ninth century. Participants faced an image of thirteen thous<strong>and</strong> buddhas<br />
<strong>and</strong> a ritual platform. At the back of the room stood a seven-paneled hell<br />
screen. As the participants reflected <strong>on</strong> these images promoting penance, recitati<strong>on</strong>s<br />
of a liturgical text called Foming jing (Jp. Butsumyô kyô) invoked<br />
the many buddhas. 22 When the screen first was used is not clear, but it was in<br />
16 On the development of hell painting in China, see Yin 2006, pp. 260–349.<br />
17 T 50:625c.<br />
18 See Lidai minghua ji, pp. 47, 54, 109, etc. On these <strong>and</strong> other stories about painters of hell,<br />
see Teiser 1988, pp. 437–50.<br />
19 Nih<strong>on</strong> ryôiki 1:35; pp. 52–53, 225–26; Nakamura 1973, pp. 150–51.<br />
20 From a lost secti<strong>on</strong> of S<strong>on</strong>’i zôsôjô den , quoted in Nih<strong>on</strong> kôsôden yôm<strong>on</strong>shô, p.<br />
61. The latter work dates from 1249–1251. See Matsumoto 1992 <strong>and</strong> Takei 2007. The twelfthcentury<br />
K<strong>on</strong>jaku m<strong>on</strong>ogatarishû<br />
includes a story about a mid-Heian painter named<br />
Kose no Hirotaka who painted hell <strong>on</strong> a temple wall. See K<strong>on</strong>jaku 31:4; vol. 5, pp.<br />
444–45. On literary works describing hell imagery in Japan, see Ienaga 1966, pp. 291–318.<br />
21 Historically these were called Obutsumyô , or Butsumyô Sange (“Buddhaname<br />
penances”).<br />
22 Foming jing most likely originated in China. Many recensi<strong>on</strong>s circulated in China, Korea,<br />
<strong>and</strong> Japan, <strong>and</strong> rituals of penance took place in Japan from at least the late eighth century. These<br />
gradually developed into the annual Butsumyô-e, thought to be based primarily <strong>on</strong> a sixteenfascicle<br />
recensi<strong>on</strong> of Foming jing. Ienaga Saburô <strong>and</strong> others suggested that these rituals
6<br />
M<strong>on</strong>umenta Nipp<strong>on</strong>ica 63:1<br />
existence by 955; 23 the mid-Heian diarist Sei Shônag<strong>on</strong> saw it when it<br />
was brought to the empress for viewing following a Butsumyô-e. The images,<br />
Sei Shônag<strong>on</strong> relates, were so terrifying that she fled into the next room. 24<br />
Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa’s daughter Sen’yôm<strong>on</strong>-in<br />
(1181–1252) commissi<strong>on</strong>ed a hall at Daigoji . Built by the m<strong>on</strong>k Seigen<br />
(1162–1231), the hall was c<strong>on</strong>secrated in 1223 <strong>and</strong> probably c<strong>on</strong>tained<br />
extensive hell paintings. The paintings themselves are no l<strong>on</strong>ger extant, but a list<br />
of coloph<strong>on</strong>s of themes for imagery planned for its walls includes forty-three<br />
illustrati<strong>on</strong>s of stories about people falling into hell, reviving, <strong>and</strong> being reborn,<br />
<strong>and</strong> scenes of eighteen hells. 25<br />
In c<strong>on</strong>trast to such documentary evidence, the actual hell imagery surviving<br />
from the Nara through the Heian eras c<strong>on</strong>sists of little more than a few sketches,<br />
such as those engraved <strong>on</strong> the m<strong>and</strong>orla of a sculpture of Jûichimen Kann<strong>on</strong><br />
in Tôdaiji’s Nigatsudô<br />
, those painted <strong>on</strong> sutra fr<strong>on</strong>tispieces<br />
at Chûs<strong>on</strong>ji , <strong>and</strong> that in a Lotus Sutra m<strong>and</strong>ala at Tanzan Jinja . 26<br />
The earliest extant, most expressive imagery of hell is in painted h<strong>and</strong> scrolls<br />
known as Jigoku zôshi . 27 Compared with later illustrati<strong>on</strong>s, these paintings<br />
provide no sense of hell’s architecture <strong>and</strong> lack many of the visual referents<br />
that subsequently became comm<strong>on</strong>. Rather than portraying a sense of place,<br />
these images depict psycho-physiological experiences of pain.<br />
The late twelfth-century Anjûin Jigoku zôshi graphically dem<strong>on</strong>strates<br />
the brutal tortures awaiting sinners. The text in between each painting, based <strong>on</strong><br />
descripti<strong>on</strong>s of the <strong>Hell</strong> of Screams from Zhengfa nianchu jing, explains the sins<br />
summ<strong>on</strong>ing each torture: killing, stealing, sexual offenses, <strong>and</strong> selling alcohol<br />
mixed with water. 28 The first painting in the scroll describes Hatsukaru<br />
hell where dogs with bodies made of hot ir<strong>on</strong> bite the legs of sinners <strong>and</strong> ir<strong>on</strong>beaked<br />
eagles pierce skulls <strong>and</strong> suck out brains. All we see of this hell is <strong>on</strong>e<br />
naked man being devoured by ir<strong>on</strong> animals, brushed in colorless ink with ver-<br />
began in 838, but the recent scholarship of Takei Akio argues for 830. See Ienaga 1966,<br />
p. 294; Takei 1995; <strong>and</strong> Katsuura 2000, pp. 101–31. Later a recensi<strong>on</strong> with three thous<strong>and</strong> buddha<br />
names became st<strong>and</strong>ard, al<strong>on</strong>g with a corresp<strong>on</strong>dingly depopulated image.<br />
23 According to Hokuzanshô, p. 134. Seiji yôryaku quotes Kurôdo shiki , records of rituals<br />
of state (now lost) as menti<strong>on</strong>ing the screen (p. 176), but it is not clear which of two Kurôdo shiki<br />
it quotes. Ienaga surmises that the text quoted is that from 890, dating the screen to before then.<br />
Takei, however, presumes it is the Kurôdo shiki written between 947 <strong>and</strong> 957. See Ienaga 1966,<br />
p. 295; <strong>and</strong> Takei 1995, p. 1158.<br />
24 Makura no sôshi, p. 88.<br />
25 The hall, dedicated to Enma, will be discussed further below. See Abe 2004 <strong>and</strong> Abe 2005.<br />
26 See Miya 1988, pp. 18–25.<br />
27 These scrolls may originally have been part of a set illustrating the six realms that also included<br />
Gaki zôshi <strong>and</strong> Yamai no sôshi . It is likely that they came from the set of rokudôe<br />
catalogued as part of the collecti<strong>on</strong> of Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa, although there is no clear<br />
c<strong>on</strong>necti<strong>on</strong> between the listed images <strong>and</strong> the extant Jigoku zôshi. See Komatsu Shigemi<br />
in Jigoku zôshi, pp. 125–31. For fundamental studies of these scrolls, see Fukui 1999, pp. 33–79,<br />
275–334; Kobayashi 1974, pp. 197–350; Tanaka 1985, pp. 254–95. Also see the historiography<br />
in Nakano 1989, pp. 81–88.<br />
28 See Jigoku zôshi, pp. 40–49, 144. Also see Zhengfa nianchu jing; T 17:40a–47b.
HIRASAWA: The Inflatable, Collapsible Kingdom 7<br />
mili<strong>on</strong> blood highlights. The man can see nothing bey<strong>on</strong>d his anguish. The next<br />
hell in this scroll features kamatsuchû insects erupting from within two<br />
sinners’ bodies as they c<strong>on</strong>sume flesh <strong>and</strong> b<strong>on</strong>es (see color plate 1; color plates<br />
may be found following page 28). The use of red paint increases in the raw, violent<br />
gashes where the insects have feasted. A few sated maggots lie <strong>on</strong> the ground<br />
near their supper. The sinners, their bodies uncerem<strong>on</strong>iously exposed, sustain<br />
too much pain to notice <strong>on</strong>e other. They have not a moment’s peace to look<br />
around, much less c<strong>on</strong>sole any<strong>on</strong>e else. Although sometimes depicted in numbers,<br />
the damned in these images are al<strong>on</strong>e. At<strong>on</strong>ing for sin is a solitary process.<br />
The most social interacti<strong>on</strong> in the twelfth-century Masuda-ke kô versi<strong>on</strong><br />
Jigoku zôshi is am<strong>on</strong>g tormentors. Three dem<strong>on</strong>s in Geshin jigoku<br />
(<strong>Hell</strong> of Dissecti<strong>on</strong>), a specific destinati<strong>on</strong> for m<strong>on</strong>ks who broke the precepts<br />
against killing by butchering, cooking, <strong>and</strong> feasting <strong>on</strong> animals, for example,<br />
steadfastly mince human bodies <strong>on</strong> cutting blocks with large knives (see color<br />
plate 2). One dem<strong>on</strong> stirs a pot of stew <strong>and</strong> helps itself to a porti<strong>on</strong>. Another chats<br />
cheerfully while enjoying a plateful, its pinkie extended delicately as it balances<br />
a plate. Blood <strong>and</strong> b<strong>on</strong>es stain <strong>and</strong> litter the ground where groups of human<br />
beings cower <strong>and</strong> grieve, awaiting their turn to be transformed into dinner. After<br />
c<strong>on</strong>suming each batch of people, the dem<strong>on</strong>s say “revive, revive,” restoring the<br />
bodies of sinners <strong>and</strong> replenishing their inexhaustible sources of meat, illustrated<br />
as infants. 29 The scene would be germane to kitchens the world over, were the<br />
meat not human. The dem<strong>on</strong>s in hell’s kitchen are no more indifferent to the suffering<br />
of humans than human carnivores are to that of animals they c<strong>on</strong>sume.<br />
The human bodies invoke empathy for the victims, but the familiar portrayals<br />
of the dem<strong>on</strong>s foster closer identificati<strong>on</strong>, that we may recognize our own casually<br />
cruel, dem<strong>on</strong>ic acti<strong>on</strong>s—<strong>and</strong> repent of them.<br />
29 Kobayashi Taichirô noted that the hells for m<strong>on</strong>ks in the Masuda-ke kô versi<strong>on</strong><br />
Jigoku zôshi resemble those described in citati<strong>on</strong>s of Baoda jing (Jp. Hôtatsu kyô) in<br />
Foming jing. Kobayashi presumed that the hell screen used in the Butsumyô-e ritual, based <strong>on</strong><br />
this text, was the model for the scroll. There are many recensi<strong>on</strong>s of Foming jing, but Kobayashi<br />
postulated that the scroll was based <strong>on</strong> a sixteen-fascicle recensi<strong>on</strong>, c<strong>on</strong>sidered lost at the time he<br />
c<strong>on</strong>ducted his research. He drew his c<strong>on</strong>clusi<strong>on</strong>s from comparis<strong>on</strong>s with the Baoda jing quoted<br />
in the Korean can<strong>on</strong>’s editi<strong>on</strong> of a thirty-fascicle recensi<strong>on</strong> type; Kobayashi thought the thirtyfascicle<br />
recensi<strong>on</strong> evolved from the sixteen-fascicle recensi<strong>on</strong>. The full title of Baoda jing within<br />
the thirty-fascicle recensi<strong>on</strong> of Foming jing is Dacheng lianhua baoda wenda baoying shamen<br />
jing<br />
(Jp. Daijô renge hôtatsu m<strong>on</strong>dô hôô sham<strong>on</strong> kyô). Inokuchi<br />
Taijun<br />
reassembled a sixteen-fascicle recensi<strong>on</strong> type of Foming jing from texts found<br />
at Dunhuang <strong>and</strong> c<strong>on</strong>cluded that, excepting brief passages, Baoda jing was not quoted therein. A<br />
sixteen-fascicle recensi<strong>on</strong> of the same type has recently surfaced at Nanatsudera (Chôfukuji<br />
) in Nagoya. Many scholars currently believe that, indeed, Baoda jing is the basis for the<br />
m<strong>on</strong>ks’ hells depicted in the Masuda-ke kô versi<strong>on</strong> scrolls, but which versi<strong>on</strong> of the text remains<br />
undetermined. See Inokuchi 1964; Kobayashi 1974, pp. 275–350; Magara 1995; <strong>and</strong> Takei 1995.<br />
Kajitani Ryôji , however, remarks that since Foming jing is a liturgical text likely used<br />
in combinati<strong>on</strong> with other texts in ritual practice, there is no need to c<strong>on</strong>centrate exclusively <strong>on</strong><br />
it in searching for the origins of this imagery. See Kajitani in Bukkyô setsuwa no bijutsu, pp.<br />
251–57.
8<br />
M<strong>on</strong>umenta Nipp<strong>on</strong>ica 63:1<br />
While these images highlight dem<strong>on</strong>s or other creatures that torture <strong>and</strong> devour<br />
sinners, ultimately they portray the sinner as the agent of the punishment experienced.<br />
There is no judgment-issuing central instituti<strong>on</strong>, no place to file appeals,<br />
nobody to turn to. The images c<strong>on</strong>firm the perspective succinctly expressed by<br />
the m<strong>on</strong>k Kyôkai (fl. 782–824) in Nih<strong>on</strong> ryôiki: “Recompense [adheres to]<br />
acts of good <strong>and</strong> evil the way that shadows follow forms.” 30 Retributi<strong>on</strong> operates<br />
like a law of nature, a morally driven, automatically occurring phenomen<strong>on</strong>. The<br />
immediacy of these images reinforces the impact of the less<strong>on</strong>. Looking at them<br />
entails no inherently distancing activity. There is no background, no establishing<br />
shot, <strong>on</strong>ly close-ups of ag<strong>on</strong>y.<br />
The scale of hell painting became more ambitious in the medieval period.<br />
Many works portray hell as a m<strong>on</strong>strous pris<strong>on</strong> with impregnable walls, dem<strong>on</strong>ic<br />
guards, <strong>and</strong> fierce watchdogs. It is a “punitive city” displaying “hundreds of tiny<br />
theatres of punishment,” where “the penalty must have its most intense effects<br />
<strong>on</strong> those who have not committed the crime.” 31 Soteriological c<strong>on</strong>cerns coincided<br />
with disciplinary interests in maintaining a lawful society. One cannot,<br />
however, portray the whole of hell without decreasing the ratio of human size<br />
to envir<strong>on</strong>ment. As in the Jigoku zôshi, generic representati<strong>on</strong> allows each pers<strong>on</strong><br />
to st<strong>and</strong> in for a multitude of similar sufferers. Yet because we cannot get close<br />
to those depicted, the impact of shared experience decreases. Artists negotiated<br />
various proporti<strong>on</strong>al compromises as they enlarged their window <strong>on</strong> hell, but<br />
despite the increase in populati<strong>on</strong> in these later works, compared to the earlier<br />
Jigoku zôshi, hell seems smaller, resembling a little factory or workshop. 32<br />
Many such depicti<strong>on</strong>s of the l<strong>and</strong>scape of hell reflect the influence of Ôjôyôshû<br />
, completed in 985 by the Tendai m<strong>on</strong>k Genshin (942–1017). 33<br />
This treatise starts with reports of hell stitched together from scraps of sutras—<br />
heavily relying <strong>on</strong> Zhengfa nianchu jing—<strong>and</strong> weaves them into a compelling<br />
drama advocating salvati<strong>on</strong> through faith in rebirth in the Pure L<strong>and</strong>. Pivotal<br />
am<strong>on</strong>g surviving illustrati<strong>on</strong>s of Genshin’s text is the thirteenth-century rokudôe<br />
bel<strong>on</strong>ging to Shôjuraigôji in Ôtsu. The ic<strong>on</strong>ography from the four<br />
hanging scrolls focusing <strong>on</strong> hell out of the overall set of fifteen influenced subsequent<br />
hell paintings in Japan through numerous close copies—<strong>and</strong> copies of<br />
copies—made for other temples <strong>and</strong> displayed regularly. 34<br />
30 In his introducti<strong>on</strong> to Nih<strong>on</strong> ryôiki, pp. 4, 201; Nakamura 1973, p. 101. Kyôkai can also be<br />
pr<strong>on</strong>ounced Keikai or Kyôgai.<br />
31 This vocabulary is borrowed from Michel Foucault’s discussi<strong>on</strong> of eighteenth-century pris<strong>on</strong><br />
reform. Foucault 1975, pp. 94–95, 113.<br />
32 No survey of <strong>Japanese</strong> hell painting is complete without menti<strong>on</strong>ing Kitano tenjin engi<br />
, an emaki that includes illustrati<strong>on</strong>s of a tour of hell <strong>and</strong> other realms in its wider narrative.<br />
In the interests of space, however, this <strong>and</strong> many other notable images are not addressed here.<br />
33 See T 84:33a–37a. In English, see Reischauer 1930, pp. 27–46.<br />
34 On the Shôjuraigôji set, see Kokuhô rokudô-e. Temple lore claims that half of an original set<br />
of thirty scrolls was lost, but scholarship reveals an initial count of fifteen. Early modern legend<br />
relates that Retired Emperor En’yû (959–991), impressed by Ôjôyôshû, had Kose no Kanaoka<br />
paint these scrolls under Genshin’s direct supervisi<strong>on</strong>. See Ôgushi 1983, pp. 92–98. The<br />
temple had copies made in 1823. On various copies of this set, see Ogurisu 1991 <strong>and</strong> Ogurisu<br />
2003 <strong>and</strong> 2005.
HIRASAWA: The Inflatable, Collapsible Kingdom 9<br />
Each of the main hells in these scrolls is c<strong>on</strong>tained behind an imposing gate.<br />
The paintings portray even the most grotesquely imaginative torments <strong>and</strong> tormentors<br />
with striking realism, further emphasized by the fact that, as Kuroda<br />
Hideo has noted, the tools employed come from artisan workshops<br />
<strong>and</strong> other workplaces. 35 We see blacksmiths’ tools in t<strong>on</strong>gue-pulling ir<strong>on</strong> t<strong>on</strong>gs<br />
<strong>and</strong> bellows that intensify hell’s infernos; carpenters’ instruments are used to<br />
draw straight lines across bodies <strong>and</strong> saw them in half; from fish h<strong>and</strong>lers come<br />
cutting blocks <strong>and</strong> knives. Of more widespread provenance, mortars, pestles,<br />
grinders, <strong>and</strong> large boiling pots—props in countless hell paintings—are familiar<br />
items in many kitchens. Kuroda observed that nobody better understood the<br />
effects of these tools than the people who used them. Indeed, a workaday approach<br />
to the chores of torture characterizes many images. <strong>Hell</strong> warps nightmarishly<br />
out of daily life, underscoring the principle that suffering prevails<br />
throughout the realms of transmigrati<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong> promoting compassi<strong>on</strong> by illustrating<br />
that <strong>on</strong>e being’s workplace can inadvertently functi<strong>on</strong> as another’s hell.<br />
The shallowest of the eight great hells as described by Genshin <strong>and</strong> depicted<br />
in the Shôjuraigôji scrolls is Tôkatsu jigoku, the <strong>Hell</strong> of Revival. Here dem<strong>on</strong>s<br />
wielding all manner of pikes, bats, axes, <strong>and</strong> maces besiege <strong>and</strong> incinerate sinners<br />
guilty of killing. The damned attack each other viciously with ir<strong>on</strong> fingernails,<br />
scratching <strong>and</strong> scraping each other to shreds. They are forced to climb sword<br />
trees that pierce them <strong>and</strong> are also sliced up like fish meat. After bodies are completely<br />
destroyed, a cool wind or a voice revives them for new rounds of abuse.<br />
Worse sinners who both killed <strong>and</strong> stole descend to Kokujô jigoku, the <strong>Hell</strong> of<br />
Black Ropes (see color plate 3), where dem<strong>on</strong>s mark clean lines down the middle<br />
of their bodies with ir<strong>on</strong> ropes preparatory to sawing them neatly in half. Another<br />
punishment involves shimmying across a blisteringly hot ir<strong>on</strong> rope suspended<br />
between two mountains over a fire raging in an ir<strong>on</strong> cauldr<strong>on</strong>. Heavy ir<strong>on</strong> weights<br />
strapped to sinners’ backs invariably cause them to plunge into the flames below.<br />
Those who killed, stole, <strong>and</strong> committed adultery fall into Shugô jigoku, the<br />
<strong>Hell</strong> of Assembly, where they are chased into a crevice between two mountains<br />
<strong>and</strong> ground to minced meat, thrown into a river running with molten copper, <strong>and</strong><br />
devoured by beasts. In the satellite hell of Tôyôrin (Sword-leaf Tree), a<br />
beautiful woman beck<strong>on</strong>s to male sinners from the top of a tree. As they climb<br />
toward her, driven by desire, the leaves of the tree lacerate their flesh. In<br />
Genshin’s descripti<strong>on</strong>, when finally they arrive at the summit, bleeding <strong>and</strong><br />
ragged, the woman appears <strong>on</strong> the ground below, her eyes flirtatious, calling, “I<br />
came to this place because of my thoughts of you. Why w<strong>on</strong>’t you come close<br />
to me now? Why w<strong>on</strong>’t you embrace me?” As the sinners clamber down, the<br />
tree’s leaves point upwards, ruthlessly slicing their bodies like razors all over<br />
again. 36 Shugô jigoku also features satellite hells of retributi<strong>on</strong> for sexual crimes.<br />
35 Kuroda 2002, pp. 258–63.<br />
36 Ôjôyôshû; T 84:34a. Genshin here quotes Zhengfa nianchu jing; T 17:32a. Tôyôrin was <strong>on</strong>e<br />
of the satellite hells most favored by artists. Although rare in medieval paintings, a reversal of the<br />
gender arrangement can be found in the Idemitsu Museum’s fourteenth-century Jûô jigoku zu<br />
.
10<br />
M<strong>on</strong>umenta Nipp<strong>on</strong>ica 63:1<br />
In Akkensho (Place of Evil Views), for example, dem<strong>on</strong>s pour molten<br />
copper into sinners’ anuses, punishment for abusing children.<br />
Genshin notes that two further hells, the <strong>Hell</strong> of Screams (Kyôkan jigoku<br />
) <strong>and</strong> the Great <strong>Hell</strong> of Screams (Daikyôkan jigoku ), await those<br />
who committed the sins just described <strong>and</strong> also drank alcohol <strong>and</strong> lied. 37 His narrati<strong>on</strong><br />
is too spare or repetitive to have inspired many distinctive images—<strong>and</strong><br />
the Shôjuraigôji set does not include scrolls devoted to these hells—but many<br />
other hell paintings lavish attenti<strong>on</strong> <strong>on</strong> a satellite called Jumuhenku<br />
(Undergoing Limitless Ag<strong>on</strong>ies) that features t<strong>on</strong>gues torn out with pliers. The<br />
t<strong>on</strong>gues grow back <strong>and</strong> are ripped out repeatedly (see, for example, the lower<br />
right corner of figure 4 below, p. 20). 38 Indicating the creative challenges of<br />
portraying a series of ever-escalating horrors, the Shôjuraigôji set also omits the<br />
next two hells described by Genshin, the <strong>Hell</strong> of Incinerating Heat (Shônetsu<br />
jigoku ) <strong>and</strong> the Great <strong>Hell</strong> of Incinerating Heat (Daishônetsu jigoku<br />
). 39 Therefore, we now plummet past them to the deepest hell, Abi jigoku<br />
, also known as Muken jigoku, the <strong>Hell</strong> of No Interval (see color plate<br />
4), 40 an unrelentingly scorching abode reserved for individuals who have committed<br />
the most heinous sins, such as killing their parents or injuring a buddha.<br />
According to certain texts, people fall into all hells headl<strong>on</strong>g, 41 but images of<br />
upside-down bodies dropping into a c<strong>on</strong>flagrati<strong>on</strong> (visible at the top of color<br />
plate 4) tend to denote this hell. After two thous<strong>and</strong> years of hurtling through an<br />
unfathomable abyss, sinners arrive at the ir<strong>on</strong> net marking Abi’s upper limits<br />
where fierce beasts, milli<strong>on</strong>s of fire-breathing worms, <strong>and</strong> pois<strong>on</strong>ous serpents<br />
await them. The wardens of Abi c<strong>on</strong>duct many of the same tortures found in<br />
higher hells, but ratchet them up thous<strong>and</strong>s of times, a circumstance that makes<br />
nearly impossible dem<strong>and</strong>s <strong>on</strong> a painter’s skills. According to Ôjôyôshû, Abi’s<br />
muscle-bound dem<strong>on</strong>s have sixty-four eyes <strong>and</strong> eight ox heads crowning their<br />
own, each sporting eighteen fire-emitting horns, 42 but painters rarely packed all<br />
of that detail into their renditi<strong>on</strong>s. The Shôjuraigôji scroll c<strong>on</strong>centrates <strong>on</strong> a<br />
dem<strong>on</strong> dropping a glowingly molten ir<strong>on</strong> sphere into a pried-open mouth <strong>and</strong> <strong>on</strong><br />
another sinner’s t<strong>on</strong>gue stretched out <strong>and</strong> nailed to the ground in utter anatomical<br />
impossibility. Insects attack the elastic expanse of t<strong>on</strong>gue; in other images,<br />
t<strong>on</strong>gues are ploughed by oxen. 43<br />
37 Genshin’s terms for some hells differ from those in Jushe lun, described above, as they are<br />
also influenced by other sources.<br />
38 The Gokurakuji rokudô-e renditi<strong>on</strong> of this hell is particularly gruesome, with t<strong>on</strong>gues<br />
scattered <strong>on</strong> a blood-soaked ground beside an assiduously laboring dem<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong> its bound victim.<br />
On this painting, see Sugamura 1987.<br />
39 Genshin’s terms again differ slightly from those in Jushe lun.<br />
40 On these descripti<strong>on</strong>s of hell, see Ôjôyôshû; T 84:34a–37a.<br />
41 See, for example, Apidamo dapiposha lun (T 27:362a); <strong>and</strong> Jushe lun (T 29:47a).<br />
42 Ôjôyôshû; T 84:35c–36a.<br />
43 The latter is a detail not described in Ôjôyôshû, but found in Bashi jing (Jp. Hasshi<br />
kyô, T 14:965b); Dabaoji jing (Jp. Daihôshaku kyô, T 11:269b); Dizang pusa benyuan<br />
jing<br />
(Jp. Jizô bosatsu h<strong>on</strong>gan kyô, T 13:782b), etc.
HIRASAWA: The Inflatable, Collapsible Kingdom 11<br />
These visual transpositi<strong>on</strong>s became st<strong>and</strong>ard ingredients for representing the<br />
torments of hell in Japan, but they were not the <strong>on</strong>ly streams of textual <strong>and</strong> visual<br />
influence, as we shall see below.<br />
Judgment<br />
Deities c<strong>on</strong>ceived in India assumed new offices <strong>and</strong> resp<strong>on</strong>sibilities as they<br />
moved across East Asia, becoming stock characters in a theater of damnati<strong>on</strong>.<br />
Prominent am<strong>on</strong>g them is Enma , 44 described in the Vedas as the ancestor<br />
of humanity, the first to die, <strong>and</strong> governor of a paradisical l<strong>and</strong> of the dead. Absorbed<br />
into the Buddhist panthe<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong> incorporated into esoteric texts, he is first<br />
found residing high up <strong>on</strong> Mt. Shumisen as a heavenly being, or ten . From<br />
heaven he moved down to the realm of hungry ghosts <strong>and</strong> eventually wound up<br />
as the king of hell. 45<br />
Enma <strong>and</strong> hell’s placement in vast Indian cosmologies were absorbed intact<br />
in China, but during the Sui <strong>and</strong> Tang dynasties Chinese narratives rekindled<br />
these imported fires <strong>on</strong> a more local scale. Noti<strong>on</strong>s of Enma became c<strong>on</strong>joined<br />
with pre-Buddhist beliefs in a deity of Mt. Taishan or (Jp. Taizan) in<br />
Sh<strong>and</strong><strong>on</strong>g province, pers<strong>on</strong>ified as the magistrate Taizan Fukun (also<br />
). Human spirits were summ<strong>on</strong>ed to the mountain after death. At Taishan<br />
records were also kept <strong>on</strong> lifespans, which were adjusted according to good <strong>and</strong><br />
bad deeds. 46 Reflecting the proximity imagined through such associati<strong>on</strong>s,<br />
Chinese tales abound of people who travel to hell, see King Enma, <strong>and</strong> return to<br />
report <strong>on</strong> their experiences. One from the seventh century provides c<strong>on</strong>vincing<br />
anecdotal evidence of hell’s accessibility <strong>and</strong> materiality. After visiting Enma<br />
<strong>and</strong> the gates of hell during a seven-day meditati<strong>on</strong> journey, the Tang m<strong>on</strong>k<br />
Huiru awakens with a burn mark <strong>on</strong> his leg the size of a coin (caused by a<br />
spark flying out of hell’s gates) <strong>and</strong> with a gift of silk from the king. 47<br />
Enma also picked up new associates, associati<strong>on</strong>s, <strong>and</strong> apparel in China. Illustrated<br />
versi<strong>on</strong>s of Shiwang jing (Jp. Jûô kyô)—recensi<strong>on</strong>s of Yanluowang<br />
shouji jing<br />
(Jp. Enraô juki kyô)—from the tenth century discovered<br />
at Dunhuang display rudimentary ic<strong>on</strong>ographical comp<strong>on</strong>ents that redefined<br />
44 Enma has many names, according to different c<strong>on</strong>cepti<strong>on</strong>s <strong>and</strong> translati<strong>on</strong>s. In the Vedas, he<br />
is Yama; as a heavenly being absorbed into Buddhism, he is Yamaten ; his identity in esoteric<br />
Buddhism is Enmaten ; his name as a judge or king of the dead in the dark world is<br />
often written as Enma or Enra . Other Chinese characters <strong>and</strong> names are used as well.<br />
He also had many appellati<strong>on</strong>s in Indic languages. See Wayman 1959. To avoid c<strong>on</strong>fusi<strong>on</strong>, the<br />
main text of this article will refer to him as Enma.<br />
45 On the early Indian Enma (Yama), see Wayman 1959; <strong>and</strong> D<strong>and</strong>ekar 1979, pp. 118–40.<br />
Descripti<strong>on</strong>s of Enma in the Buddhist can<strong>on</strong> vary widely. Chang ahan jing, for example, reports<br />
Enma passing a pleasant time with c<strong>on</strong>sorts, periodically interrupted by torturous punishment for<br />
his sins (T 1:126b), <strong>and</strong> the sixth-century Jinglu yixiang (Jp. Kyôritsu isô) tells us that<br />
he was an historical king who vowed to become king of hell if he lost a battle—he was defeated<br />
(T 53:258c). His name also delineates a post filled by successive officeholders. See Sawada 1991,<br />
pp. 81–83.<br />
46 See Sakai 1937; <strong>and</strong> Sawada 1991, pp. 37–48, 249–89.<br />
47 Mingbao ji (Jp. Meihô ki); T 51:788c.
12<br />
M<strong>on</strong>umenta Nipp<strong>on</strong>ica 63:1<br />
Figure 1. Shiwang jing (detail). © British Library Board. All Rights Reserved. Or.8210/S.3961.<br />
Enma <strong>and</strong> that maintained their currency for over a millennium. 48 The texts,<br />
which probably took shape in China, advocate mortuary rites that assist passage<br />
through a series of judgments by ten kings at determined intervals. The dead appear<br />
before the first king seven days after dying, for example, <strong>and</strong> before the tenth three<br />
years later. The kings, Shinkô , Shokô , Sôtei , Gokan , Enma,<br />
Henjô , Taizan, Byôdô , Toshi , <strong>and</strong> Godô Tenrin , also keep<br />
track of whether rites are faithfully performed. 49 Assembled from an assortment<br />
of Indian <strong>and</strong> Chinese traditi<strong>on</strong>s, Enma <strong>and</strong> Taizan have rich back stories, while<br />
Shokô, King of the First River, <strong>and</strong> Godô Tenrin, King of Reincarnati<strong>on</strong> in Five<br />
Realms, seem to have been named for stages in the passage through the l<strong>and</strong>scape<br />
of the afterlife. 50 Shiwang jing recensi<strong>on</strong>s rhythmically illustrate each king’s court,<br />
peopled with a few assistants, sinners wearing restraints, <strong>and</strong> virtuous dead. After<br />
the last court, hell appears as a walled-off area guarded by a dem<strong>on</strong>ic warden, but<br />
the recensi<strong>on</strong>s do not provide much detail of its torments (see figure 1).<br />
Esoteric Buddhist images of the heavenly being Enma most likely arrived in<br />
Japan in the early ninth century in m<strong>and</strong>alas of the two worlds. 51 Tang-dynasty<br />
48 On these texts, see Du 1989; Motoi 2004; Ogawa 1973, pp. 81–154; Tsukamoto 1975, pp.<br />
315–99; Teiser 1994; <strong>and</strong> Zhang 2001. Recensi<strong>on</strong>s without hymns are c<strong>on</strong>sidered the oldest.<br />
Illustrated versi<strong>on</strong>s, which c<strong>on</strong>tain elements not fully explained by the texts, may have developed<br />
later. See Tsukamoto 1975 <strong>and</strong> Zhang 2001. Recensi<strong>on</strong>s of these texts bear many variant titles.<br />
In accordance with general c<strong>on</strong>venti<strong>on</strong>s established by recent research, this article refers to those<br />
without hymns or illustrati<strong>on</strong> as Yanluowang shouji jing <strong>and</strong> to illustrated recensi<strong>on</strong>s with hymns,<br />
including the type that definitely circulated in Japan, as Shiwang jing. See Zhang 2001, pp. 82,<br />
91–93. On the paintings found at Dunhuang, see Matsumoto 1937.<br />
49 People sp<strong>on</strong>sored rites known as Shôshichisai preemptively in preparati<strong>on</strong> for their<br />
own afterlife, while surviving family members c<strong>on</strong>ducted Shichishichisai for the wellbeing<br />
of the dead. The former may have preceded its combinati<strong>on</strong> with the latter. See Kominami<br />
2002 <strong>and</strong> Motoi 2004.<br />
50 Kominami 2002, pp. 199, 219–30.<br />
51 Although the m<strong>and</strong>alas Kûkai (774–835) brought back from China do not survive, Enma<br />
appears in the Takao m<strong>and</strong>ara , thought to be a sec<strong>on</strong>d-generati<strong>on</strong> copy. On Enma’s<br />
visual transformati<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong> history in Japan, see Nakano 1989, pp. 124–49. <strong>Hell</strong> was important not<br />
<strong>on</strong>ly in didactic stories <strong>and</strong> Pure L<strong>and</strong> thought; it was well known in Japan in early Buddhist circles<br />
through sutras <strong>and</strong> commentaries (Ishida 1998, pp. 29–32). See, for example, Kûkai’s discussi<strong>on</strong>s<br />
of hell in Jûjûshin r<strong>on</strong> (Himitsu m<strong>and</strong>ara jûjûshin r<strong>on</strong> ); T<br />
77:306c–307b.
HIRASAWA: The Inflatable, Collapsible Kingdom 13<br />
esoteric Buddhist texts had reidentified Enma as a lord of the dark world, routinely<br />
associated with Taizan Fukun. 52 In early <strong>Japanese</strong> m<strong>and</strong>alas, he <strong>and</strong><br />
Taizan Fukun both wear bodhisattva-style clothing. Enma also appears as a<br />
graceful deity in sets of twelve hanging scrolls of heavenly beings in the first<br />
half of the Heian era <strong>and</strong> was worshiped independently in rituals using more circumscribed<br />
paintings (see figure 2). The first hints in Japan of Enma’s ic<strong>on</strong>ographic<br />
development from a heavenly being to an afterlife judge influenced by<br />
the cult of the ten kings are found in later Heian devoti<strong>on</strong>al paintings dedicated<br />
to Enma. While Enma initially c<strong>on</strong>tinues to wear Indian clothing, he is accompanied<br />
by Taizan Fukun, Godô Tenrin (also known as Godô Daijin ),<br />
<strong>and</strong> two record-keepers, all wearing Chinese garb. Then, in Enma m<strong>and</strong>alas c<strong>on</strong>taining<br />
nineteen deities, he exchanges his diaphanous bodhisattva garments <strong>and</strong><br />
gentle features for Chinese attire <strong>and</strong> the stern glower of King Enma. 53<br />
Evidence that Enma’s esoteric alignment was combined with hell imagery can<br />
be found in descripti<strong>on</strong>s of the Daigoji hall commissi<strong>on</strong>ed by Retired Emperor<br />
Go-Shirakawa’s daughter Sen’yôm<strong>on</strong>-in <strong>and</strong> completed in 1223. Documents<br />
indicate that the hall, dedicated to Enma, c<strong>on</strong>tained sculptures of him <strong>and</strong> of other<br />
figures portrayed in esoteric devoti<strong>on</strong>al images to Enma. 54 As discussed above<br />
(p. 6), paintings <strong>on</strong> the surrounding walls of the hall depicted hell.<br />
In the twelfth <strong>and</strong> thirteenth centuries, sets of hanging scrolls of the ten kings<br />
attributed to painters or workshops in the Ningbo regi<strong>on</strong> arrived in the archipelago.<br />
55 The kings sit in Chinese-style chairs behind desks furnished with ink,<br />
52 See Osabe 1971.<br />
53 See Ajima 1991. Ajima supposes that this painting dates to the mid-thirteenth century <strong>and</strong><br />
may possibly be based <strong>on</strong> eleventh-century ic<strong>on</strong>ography.<br />
54 See Abe 2004 <strong>and</strong> Abe 2005. The main figures were carved by Kaikei <strong>and</strong> Tankei .<br />
55 On S<strong>on</strong>g- <strong>and</strong> Yuan-dynasty ten-king paintings, see Nakano 1992 <strong>and</strong> Miya 1992. Many bear<br />
the inscripti<strong>on</strong>s of Jin Chushi or Lu Xinzh<strong>on</strong>g . On these, see Ebine 1986a; Kajitani<br />
1979; Ledderose 2000, pp. 163–85; Shi 1985; <strong>and</strong> Suzuki 1967. On the Ningbo workshops, see<br />
Ide 2001 <strong>and</strong> Ebine 1986b. The chr<strong>on</strong>ological, regi<strong>on</strong>al, <strong>and</strong> ic<strong>on</strong>ographic gaps between the<br />
Dunhuang <strong>and</strong> Ningbo ten-king paintings raise questi<strong>on</strong>s about their relati<strong>on</strong>ship to central Chinese<br />
beliefs <strong>and</strong> images. Cheeyun Kw<strong>on</strong> maintains that ten-king paintings in the Seikadô Bunko<br />
Art Museum were commissi<strong>on</strong>ed by the Koryŏ court in the twelfth or early thirteenth century<br />
based <strong>on</strong> Northern S<strong>on</strong>g models, but others see them as originating in fourteenth-century
14<br />
M<strong>on</strong>umenta Nipp<strong>on</strong>ica 63:1<br />
Figure 2. Enmaten. Nati<strong>on</strong>al Treasure.<br />
Courtesy of Daigoji, Kyoto.<br />
Image reproduced from Josei to<br />
bukkyô.<br />
grinding st<strong>on</strong>es, brushes, <strong>and</strong> documents. Assistants read from records, take<br />
notes, or st<strong>and</strong> by ready to serve. In fr<strong>on</strong>t of the desks, sinners cower—tied up,<br />
shackled, <strong>and</strong> manh<strong>and</strong>led by dem<strong>on</strong>s—as they await judgment. The leg, h<strong>and</strong>,<br />
<strong>and</strong> neck restraints they wear resemble instruments described in Chinese pris<strong>on</strong>management<br />
regulati<strong>on</strong> manuals <strong>and</strong> sketched out in Shiwang jing. 56 Beneath<br />
China. See Kw<strong>on</strong> 1999; Kw<strong>on</strong> 2000; Miyazaki 1999; <strong>and</strong> Takasu 1999–2000, p. 68. Kw<strong>on</strong> also<br />
suggests that ten-king paintings in the former Packard collecti<strong>on</strong> predate the Ningbo images. See<br />
Kw<strong>on</strong> 2005. One popular form of Korean ten-king ic<strong>on</strong>ography developed from Chinese models<br />
of Jizô flanked by the kings. Such images arrived in Japan, but were not widely copied. See<br />
below for the relati<strong>on</strong>ship between Jizô <strong>and</strong> Enma that became prevalent in Japan.<br />
56 For a study of these disciplinary devices, see Niida 1980, pp. 597–614.
HIRASAWA: The Inflatable, Collapsible Kingdom 15<br />
each king are articulated <strong>on</strong>e or two details of hell (see color plate 5). Visual<br />
motifs from the Ningbo paintings copied or modified by <strong>Japanese</strong> artists <strong>and</strong> produced<br />
in quantity quickly became widely employed prototypes. The mise-enscène<br />
in <strong>Japanese</strong> renditi<strong>on</strong>s is firmly anchored in China’s past, reflecting the<br />
original models, but people who fall into these Chinese courts are <strong>Japanese</strong>—in<br />
numerous images sinners look back <strong>on</strong> their previous lives to see themselves<br />
wearing <strong>Japanese</strong> clothing. 57<br />
Enma’s distinctive, often independent portrayal in texts <strong>and</strong> images reflects<br />
his Indian pedigree, unique am<strong>on</strong>g the ten kings, but his character, appearance,<br />
<strong>and</strong> official duties were greatly influenced by Yanluowang shouji jing <strong>and</strong> its<br />
illustrated recensi<strong>on</strong>s, Shiwang jing. These texts do not, however, elaborate <strong>on</strong><br />
Enma’s acti<strong>on</strong>s <strong>and</strong> the details of his court. More venerable descripti<strong>on</strong>s of judgment<br />
are similar; typically the king simply makes proclamati<strong>on</strong>s like, “Tabulating<br />
your deeds in accordance with your sins <strong>and</strong> good acti<strong>on</strong>s, I pr<strong>on</strong>ounce<br />
judgment.” 58 <strong>Japanese</strong> percepti<strong>on</strong>s of the particulars of afterlife justice thus<br />
derived from other sources as well. Notable am<strong>on</strong>g them was a l<strong>on</strong>ger recensi<strong>on</strong><br />
of Shiwang jing called Jizô bosatsu hosshin innen jûô kyô<br />
(hereafter Jizô jûô kyô), possibly compiled in Japan before the mid-thirteenth<br />
century, that circulated widely. 59<br />
The secti<strong>on</strong> <strong>on</strong> Enma describes his great palace as having four ir<strong>on</strong> gates, each<br />
flanked by d<strong>and</strong>adô banner stanchi<strong>on</strong>s atop of which rest beings shaped<br />
like human heads. They can see the activities of human beings as if looking at a<br />
mango fruit held in the palm of <strong>on</strong>e’s h<strong>and</strong>. Moreover, all living beings, the text<br />
explains, have dôshôjin (together-born deities) c<strong>on</strong>stantly recording<br />
everything they do. 60 Such witnesses report their findings to the king, who then<br />
forces the dead to look into the Jôhari no kagami (Pristine Crystal<br />
Mirror) or Gô no kagami (Mirror of Karma). Reflected therein are “each act<br />
of good <strong>and</strong> evil, every karma-producing act performed during that pers<strong>on</strong>’s previous<br />
life.” The text describes the visi<strong>on</strong> as “akin to actually encountering people<br />
<strong>and</strong> seeing their faces, eyes, <strong>and</strong> ears.” 61 The proceedings in Enma’s court<br />
57 Noted by Kuroda 2002; Wakabayashi 2004; <strong>and</strong> Watanabe 1984. Many literary accounts of<br />
hell have decidedly <strong>Japanese</strong> settings. Stories in K<strong>on</strong>jaku m<strong>on</strong>ogatarishû describe the place of<br />
judgment as similar to the Kebiishichô , a Heian-era combinati<strong>on</strong> court <strong>and</strong> police<br />
authority. See K<strong>on</strong>jaku 17:18; vol. 4, p. 32; 17:22; vol. 4, p. 39. Also see Kuroda 2002, pp. 243–45.<br />
58 Yaoshi liuliguang rulai benyuan g<strong>on</strong>gde jing (Jp. Yakushi rurikô<br />
nyorai h<strong>on</strong>gan kudoku kyô; from the fourth or fifth century); T 14:407b.<br />
59 On the dating of this text, see Manabe 1960, p. 129; <strong>and</strong> Motoi 1998a, pp. 27–28. <strong>Japanese</strong><br />
linguistic <strong>and</strong> c<strong>on</strong>ceptual elements have led scholars since the Edo era to presume it to be a<br />
<strong>Japanese</strong> work. It may reference a now-lost Chinese text. See Manabe 1960, pp. 124–31; <strong>and</strong><br />
Matsumoto 1942, p. 230. One argument claims that it was composed in China. See Xiao 1996,<br />
pp. 592–603. Shiwang jing recensi<strong>on</strong>s that circulated <strong>on</strong> the Korean peninsula c<strong>on</strong>tain verse identical<br />
to that in Jizô jûô kyô, but not found in Shiwang jing recensi<strong>on</strong>s from Dunhuang, suggesting<br />
influence of the Korean recensi<strong>on</strong> type <strong>on</strong> Jizô jûô kyô. Motoi 2004, p. 20.<br />
60 On the development of these spies, also called kushôjin , see Nagao 2000. D<strong>and</strong>adô<br />
stanchi<strong>on</strong>s, partly evolved from human-headed scepters carried by the heavenly being Enma, were<br />
often c<strong>on</strong>flated with dôshôjin.<br />
61 Jizô jûô kyô, pp. 771–72.
16<br />
M<strong>on</strong>umenta Nipp<strong>on</strong>ica 63:1<br />
do not anticipate vehement denial of good deeds, but rather functi<strong>on</strong> to expose<br />
evil behavior easily c<strong>on</strong>cealed in life. In the face of omniscient witnesses <strong>and</strong><br />
irrefutable corroborati<strong>on</strong>, sinners cannot repudiate or redefine the facts. In Jizô<br />
jûô kyô, the dôshôjin take the witness st<strong>and</strong> directly after people face their deeds<br />
in Enma’s mirror, saying, “There is not even the slightest discrepancy between<br />
what we have seen in Enbu (the world of humans) <strong>and</strong> that which has<br />
appeared in the karma mirror. Objects <strong>and</strong> their shadows have the same shape.” 62<br />
In the many <strong>Japanese</strong> hell paintings incorporating images of such mirrors, the<br />
crime most comm<strong>on</strong>ly recorded is killing. Aside from cardinal sins such as<br />
murdering m<strong>on</strong>ks or setting fire to temple property, the mirrors reflect killing<br />
associated with vocati<strong>on</strong>al <strong>and</strong> culinary customs such as the butchering of animals,<br />
fishing, <strong>and</strong> hunting game. Animals gather around some mirrors, accusatorily<br />
facing their slaughterers. Other mirrors depict warriors engaged in battle. Such<br />
ic<strong>on</strong>ography prompted c<strong>on</strong>sciousness of the retributi<strong>on</strong> awaiting those engaged<br />
in certain professi<strong>on</strong>s <strong>and</strong> primed them to c<strong>on</strong>sider their opti<strong>on</strong>s for salvati<strong>on</strong>. 63<br />
Genshin’s Ôjôyôshû menti<strong>on</strong>s King Enma <strong>and</strong> his court <strong>on</strong>ly briefly. Nevertheless,<br />
by the thirteenth century, the cult of the ten kings had become so firmly<br />
associated with hell that even works that otherwise adhered closely to the framework<br />
of ideas found in Ôjôyôshû included a judgment scene. An impressive<br />
painting of King Enma <strong>and</strong> his court thus figures, for instance, am<strong>on</strong>g the Shôjuraigôji<br />
rokudô-e (see figure 3). Flower petals <strong>and</strong> rays of light float down from<br />
the lips of an angelic d<strong>and</strong>adô toward a respectfully kneeling virtuous man <strong>on</strong> the<br />
right, while harsh, accusatory streaks of red from a dem<strong>on</strong>ic d<strong>and</strong>adô c<strong>on</strong>demn<br />
a sinner <strong>on</strong> the left, forced to view himself in Enma’s mirror stabbing a m<strong>on</strong>k.<br />
Since self-knowledge is a key to transcending self, hell, <strong>and</strong> the world, inducing<br />
c<strong>on</strong>fessi<strong>on</strong> can be interpreted as a critical goal in the process of judgment.<br />
That which is reflected in Enma’s mirror is n<strong>on</strong>e other than the bad c<strong>on</strong>sciences<br />
of sinners, who can no more pull the wool over Enma’s eyes than they can fool<br />
themselves.<br />
Appeals <strong>and</strong> Hidden Identities<br />
We have traced hell’s progressi<strong>on</strong> from a place of automatic, unmediated punishment<br />
for evil deeds to an increasingly authoritarian system of judges <strong>and</strong> pre-<br />
62 Jizô jûô kyô, p. 772. Lest the mirror, banner stanchi<strong>on</strong>s, <strong>and</strong> witnesses were not enough to<br />
ensure justice, a scale bel<strong>on</strong>ging to the fourth king weighs sinners against their sins. Jizô jûô kyô,<br />
p. 771.<br />
63 Tangchao minghua lu, p. 76, c<strong>on</strong>tains a passage describing how, up<strong>on</strong> seeing a hell painting<br />
by the famous painter Wu Daoxuan, butchers <strong>and</strong> fishermen changed their professi<strong>on</strong>s. Another<br />
“occupati<strong>on</strong>” targeted was that of motherhood. While relatively neglected in early hell painting,<br />
beginning in the sixteenth century, hells related to female reproductive issues <strong>and</strong> resp<strong>on</strong>sibilities<br />
became popular subjects for illustrati<strong>on</strong> in Japan. Women, accused of a growing catalogue of “sins,”<br />
were threatened with hells resulting from jealousy, attachment, menstruati<strong>on</strong>, infertility, aborti<strong>on</strong>,<br />
infanticide, having too few children, <strong>and</strong> dying in childbirth. In the interest of c<strong>on</strong>centrating <strong>on</strong><br />
broad developments in hell imagery, treatment of the damnati<strong>on</strong> of women is omitted here, but<br />
will be addressed in the author’s forthcoming book <strong>on</strong> Tateyama m<strong>and</strong>ara .
HIRASAWA: The Inflatable, Collapsible Kingdom 17<br />
Figure 3. Enma’s court scroll,<br />
Rokudô-e. Courtesy of Shôjuraigôji.<br />
Nati<strong>on</strong>al Treasure. Image reproduced<br />
from Kokuhô rokudô-e,<br />
Kanai Morio, photographer.<br />
cisi<strong>on</strong> assessment equipment.<br />
Every sinful act is scrupulously<br />
recorded, <strong>and</strong> it can take e<strong>on</strong>s<br />
of punishment to burn off bad<br />
karma <strong>and</strong> reincarnate out of<br />
hell, making it all the more<br />
imperative to perform a larger<br />
balance of good. There were<br />
also, however, ways of compassi<strong>on</strong>ately<br />
assisting deceased<br />
loved <strong>on</strong>es, improving <strong>on</strong>e’s<br />
chances, <strong>and</strong> getting around the<br />
system. Such methods for securing<br />
leniency accommodated the<br />
needs of believers, while simultaneously<br />
serving the interests of<br />
religious officiants.<br />
During the medieval period,<br />
commissi<strong>on</strong>ers <strong>and</strong> audiences<br />
of hell painting grew to include<br />
n<strong>on</strong>aristocratic classes. As the<br />
estate system gradually deteriorated,<br />
temples faced a loss of<br />
income from their l<strong>and</strong> holdings,<br />
a situati<strong>on</strong> that led many<br />
to try to draw comm<strong>on</strong>ers into<br />
their ec<strong>on</strong>omic support system.<br />
One means of doing so was to<br />
promote the merits of a temple’s<br />
main deities in painted h<strong>and</strong>scrolls, <strong>and</strong> key am<strong>on</strong>g such merits was efficacy<br />
in saving people from hell. 64 By the late medieval <strong>and</strong> early modern periods,<br />
64 Satô 1987, pp. 43–46.
18<br />
M<strong>on</strong>umenta Nipp<strong>on</strong>ica 63:1<br />
itinerant preachers frequently used images of hell in their outdoor marketplace <strong>and</strong><br />
street performances. 65<br />
Purveyors of hell sold ritual services <strong>and</strong> talismans guaranteeing preemptive salvati<strong>on</strong>,<br />
last minute reprieves at the judgment, <strong>and</strong> release from punishment. Rather<br />
than insisting <strong>on</strong> a cessati<strong>on</strong> of sin through ab<strong>and</strong><strong>on</strong>ing livelihoods <strong>and</strong> resp<strong>on</strong>sibilities,<br />
the preventive measures propagated in effect enabled people to c<strong>on</strong>tinue<br />
their lives as morally compromised as ever—with assurances that they would not<br />
suffer the c<strong>on</strong>sequences.<br />
The same texts that set out the process of judgment rati<strong>on</strong>alize methods of<br />
avoiding hell. Yanluowang shouji jing describe uncomplicated, generic procedures<br />
that yield disproporti<strong>on</strong>ately favorable results <strong>and</strong> that apply even to those guilty of<br />
the worst offenses. One recensi<strong>on</strong>, for example, c<strong>on</strong>tains this passage:<br />
[For the following deeds committed] while alive—killing <strong>on</strong>e’s father, injuring <strong>and</strong><br />
killing <strong>on</strong>e’s mother, breaking precepts, killing cows, sheep, chickens, dogs, or pois<strong>on</strong>ous<br />
snakes—for all of these profound sins, truly <strong>on</strong>e should enter hell for ten<br />
e<strong>on</strong>s. If [that individual re]produces this scripture or images of deities, such [acts]<br />
will be recorded in the karma mirror. King En[ma] will rejoice <strong>and</strong> judge that the<br />
pers<strong>on</strong> be released <strong>and</strong> born into a wealthy, exalted household, avoiding the [repercussi<strong>on</strong>s]<br />
of sin <strong>and</strong> error. 66<br />
From the earliest descripti<strong>on</strong>s of the ten kings we find that Enma resp<strong>on</strong>ds favorably<br />
to the commissi<strong>on</strong>ing of images or the propagating of sutras. Many paintings<br />
show people <strong>on</strong> trial in Enma’s court holding some object as evidence that<br />
while alive they copied a sutra or commissi<strong>on</strong>ed an ic<strong>on</strong>, or that some<strong>on</strong>e has<br />
performed such acts <strong>on</strong> their behalf. Pious defendants appear fully dressed,<br />
humbly offering themselves for judgment together with the sacred object that<br />
will save them from hell. Some images depict fully dressed, but apparently<br />
flawed, individuals ingratiatingly presenting devoti<strong>on</strong>al items, suggesting that in<br />
many ways the practices of the bureaucracy of hell were assumed to resemble<br />
those of this world (compare the defendants in figures 4 <strong>and</strong> 5). 67 In both cases<br />
the clothing indicates that the supplicants will pass muster <strong>and</strong> c<strong>on</strong>tinue <strong>on</strong> to<br />
their next existences without serving time in hell. “Criminals” without enough<br />
merit to escape hell wear nothing but loincloths, shackles, <strong>and</strong> cangues. 68<br />
65 Watanabe 1995, pp. 227–70. At the same time, the high quality <strong>and</strong> c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong> of some surviving<br />
temple <strong>and</strong> shrine foundati<strong>on</strong>-legend scrolls suggest that they may have been d<strong>on</strong>ated by aristocrats<br />
<strong>and</strong> never intended for use in preaching. See Miya 1989.<br />
66 From a manuscript discovered at Dunhuang, now in the Stein collecti<strong>on</strong> in the British Library<br />
(S. 2489), published in Du 1989, p. 55, al<strong>on</strong>g with transcripti<strong>on</strong>s of many other recensi<strong>on</strong>s. This<br />
recensi<strong>on</strong> of Yanluowang shouji jing may represent the oldest type. See Motoi 2004. I have c<strong>on</strong>sulted<br />
Stephen Teiser’s translati<strong>on</strong> of a manuscript of Shiwang jing also found at Dunhuang, now<br />
in the Pelliot collecti<strong>on</strong> in the Bibliothèque Nati<strong>on</strong>ale (P. 2003). See Teiser 1994, pp. 202–203.<br />
67 There is evidence that m<strong>on</strong>ey to bribe King Taizan was placed into the mouths of the dead at<br />
burial. See Liudu ji jing (Jp. Rokudo jikkyô); T 3:36c, translated into Chinese in the third<br />
century; <strong>and</strong> Kominami 2002, p. 213.<br />
68 Aristocratic sinners tend to be depicted as wearing more than their comm<strong>on</strong>er counterparts,<br />
even if that <strong>on</strong>ly amounts to fancier undergarments.
HIRASAWA: The Inflatable, Collapsible Kingdom 19<br />
As these images suggest, the wealthy might avoid payback for their less upst<strong>and</strong>ing<br />
deeds by dedicating resources to sacred text <strong>and</strong> image producti<strong>on</strong>.<br />
Images sold otherworldly insurance policies to those who could afford to pay<br />
for them—thereby sustaining their own cults. The poor <strong>and</strong> illiterate, <strong>on</strong> the other<br />
h<strong>and</strong>, had few avenues to salvati<strong>on</strong> apart from exemplary behavior. Perhaps<br />
resulting from a sense of inequity, some stories cast doubt <strong>on</strong> the impartiality<br />
<strong>and</strong> infallibility of otherworldly justice. There were loopholes, Enma made mistakes,<br />
<strong>and</strong> his henchmen took bribes. 69 Those sinners fortunate enough to have<br />
relatives to perform the proper rites escaped punishment—while those without<br />
c<strong>on</strong>necti<strong>on</strong>s served their full terms. The bureaucracy of hell resembled that of<br />
earth, warts <strong>and</strong> all, <strong>and</strong> overflowed into the world of the living.<br />
Addressing imbalances, even those with few resources or little to recommend<br />
them could hedge their bets by appealing to advocates who would negotiate with<br />
Enma. For a modicum of faith or a tiny fee in other forms of prepaid spiritual<br />
currency, such intermediaries helped sinners to get reduced penalties or to avoid<br />
hell altogether. The merciful bodhisattva Jizô (Sk. Kṡitigarbha) was the first<br />
choice of many, since he would descend to the very depths of hell to save people.<br />
70<br />
As with other deities we have examined, Jizô originated in India. He became<br />
the focus of an independent cult in China during the Tang dynasty, <strong>and</strong> his popularity<br />
there spawned many sculptures <strong>and</strong> paintings. 71 Am<strong>on</strong>g the most influential<br />
texts <strong>on</strong> Jizô is the Indian Shilun jing (Jp. Jûrin kyô), emphasizing<br />
the bodhisattva’s efficacy in saving beings throughout the six realms (particularly<br />
hell) <strong>and</strong> promoting his benefits in this world, 72 <strong>and</strong> Dizang pusa benyuan jing<br />
(Jp. Jizô bosatsu h<strong>on</strong>gan kyô), which additi<strong>on</strong>ally describes his<br />
prior lives. Such texts were copied in Japan during the Nara period, but in early<br />
centuries Jizô, the “earth storehouse,” was important primarily as a subject of<br />
esoteric prayer, paired with the bodhisattva Kokûzô (Sk. Âkâśagarbha),<br />
the “sky storehouse.” Jizô as an intermediary or savior became increasingly significant<br />
in the tenth century together with the promoti<strong>on</strong> (in Ôjôyôshû <strong>and</strong> other<br />
texts) of noti<strong>on</strong>s of the “end of the law” (mappô ), hell, <strong>and</strong> the Pure L<strong>and</strong>. 73<br />
“Miracle stories” such as those in Dizang pusa yingyanji<br />
(Jp.<br />
Jizô bosatsu ôgenki), a collecti<strong>on</strong> of Jizô stories edited by Changjin in 989,<br />
69 A story in Nih<strong>on</strong> ryôiki tells of Enma’s henchmen coming to fetch a man. After he serves<br />
them food <strong>and</strong> offers his cattle, they agree to take another man born in the same year. The first<br />
man lives to a ripe old age, <strong>and</strong> no menti<strong>on</strong> is made of the fate of the hapless fellow who went to<br />
hell in his stead. Nih<strong>on</strong> ryôiki 2:24; pp. 97–99, 247–48; <strong>and</strong> Nakamura 1973, pp. 192–94.<br />
70 Others included the bodhisattva Kann<strong>on</strong> , animals <strong>on</strong>e had saved or spared, <strong>and</strong> kami.<br />
71 On the cult of Jizô, see, for example, Hayami 1975a; Hayami 1975b; Jizô shinkô; Manabe<br />
1960; <strong>and</strong> Zhuang 1999. For a reference list indicating the tremendous amount of research <strong>on</strong> Jizô,<br />
see Ôshima 2003.<br />
72 Only fragments of the original Sanskrit text survive. It was translated into Chinese in the<br />
fourth or fifth century <strong>and</strong> retranslated in the Tang dynasty by Xuanzang (602 [or 600]–664)<br />
as Dacheng daji Dizang shilun jing<br />
(Jp. Daijô daijû Jizô jûrin kyô).<br />
73 See Hayami 1975a, pp. 37–42, 63–73.
20<br />
M<strong>on</strong>umenta Nipp<strong>on</strong>ica 63:1<br />
Figures 4 <strong>and</strong> 5. Gokan <strong>and</strong> Godô Tenrin or Henjô scrolls, Jûô zu. Important<br />
Cultural Property. Courtesy of Jôfukuji , Kyoto. Image reproduced<br />
from Jigoku yûran. Many scholars regard figure 5 as Henjô, but Nakano
HIRASAWA: The Inflatable, Collapsible Kingdom 21<br />
Genzô determines the same figure in the nearly identical Nis<strong>on</strong>’in<br />
set to be Godô Tenrin. See Nakano 1989, pp. 269–71, 335–36. Jigoku<br />
yûran also labels it as Godô Tenrin.
22<br />
M<strong>on</strong>umenta Nipp<strong>on</strong>ica 63:1<br />
played a key role in promoting faith in Jizô. 74 When exactly this work entered<br />
Japan is not known, but it may have influenced the now-lost mid-eleventhcentury<br />
Jizô bosatsu reigenki , edited by Jitsuei , which is c<strong>on</strong>sidered<br />
a source for stories about Jizô found in the seventeenth fascicle of the<br />
twelfth-century K<strong>on</strong>jaku m<strong>on</strong>ogatarishû . One such tale relates that<br />
officials from hell seized the m<strong>on</strong>k Zôman . He protested that he earnestly<br />
performed austerities, did not commit certain sins, recited nenbutsu prayers<br />
invoking Amida’s name, <strong>and</strong> thus should, according to Jizô’s vows, avoid hell<br />
<strong>and</strong> be reborn in the Pure L<strong>and</strong>. “That is what you say, but you have no verifiable<br />
proof,” the officials replied. Eventually Jizô himself appeared, c<strong>on</strong>firming<br />
Zôman’s virtue <strong>and</strong> enabling him to return to the world of the living. 75<br />
H<strong>and</strong>scrolls based <strong>on</strong> these texts <strong>and</strong> dating from the thirteenth century offered<br />
vivid testim<strong>on</strong>y to Jizô’s powers to save people from hell, introducing a glimmer<br />
of hope to bleak painted universes of damnati<strong>on</strong>. 76 Color plate 6 is a scene from<br />
the Freer Museum’s Jizô bosatsu reigenki, held to be the oldest surviving example<br />
of such scrolls. It describes the ghost of a woman who has fallen into hell as<br />
explaining:<br />
In this hell three times day <strong>and</strong> night I endure torments. First I am suffocated <strong>and</strong><br />
burned in str<strong>on</strong>g flames like a piece of charcoal. Sec<strong>on</strong>d, I climb <strong>and</strong> descend a<br />
mountain of swords until my b<strong>on</strong>es <strong>and</strong> flesh are completely destroyed. Third, a<br />
dem<strong>on</strong> comes <strong>and</strong> beats people with a cudgel. The number of blows is three<br />
hundred <strong>and</strong> sixty-four. Having twice participated in [the activities of] a Jizô<br />
associati<strong>on</strong>, establishing a c<strong>on</strong>necti<strong>on</strong> with him, <strong>and</strong> having marveled at his<br />
incredibly noble, compassi<strong>on</strong>ate vows, I made a profoundly sincere pledge that<br />
wherever I went, I would rely <strong>on</strong> him. Jizô [now] takes my place <strong>and</strong> sustains<br />
two of my tortures. I am still unable to escape the dem<strong>on</strong>’s beatings, which cause<br />
pain that penetrates my very b<strong>on</strong>es <strong>and</strong> is difficult to bear. 77<br />
The scroll illustrates four scenes: the woman telling a religious practiti<strong>on</strong>er<br />
her story; her body suspended upside down while a dem<strong>on</strong> beats her <strong>and</strong> blood<br />
streams down her back; Jizô <strong>on</strong> a pyre of flames as she looks <strong>on</strong>, h<strong>and</strong>s clasped<br />
in gratitude; <strong>and</strong> Jizô heading up a mountain of swords, looking back at her as<br />
she watches in horror <strong>and</strong> relief. (Although, as discussed below, Jizô appears in<br />
the earliest Chinese images of the ten kings, this early <strong>Japanese</strong> scroll is distinctive<br />
in portraying him in the midst of hell’s inferno.) We do not know what<br />
bad things the woman did, <strong>on</strong>ly that a fortuitous c<strong>on</strong>necti<strong>on</strong> with Jizô enabled<br />
74 The oldest surviving copy is from 1148. An often-cited recensi<strong>on</strong> entitled Dizang pusa xiang<br />
lingyanji<br />
(Jp. Jizô bosatsu zô reigenki) is included in Dai Nih<strong>on</strong> zokuzôkyô<br />
(originally published 1905–1912 <strong>and</strong> republished in Taiwan as Wanzi xuzangjing<br />
), but current scholarship regards Dizang pusa yingyanji as older; for the latter text, see<br />
Umezu 1968, pp. 124–39.<br />
75 K<strong>on</strong>jaku 17:17; vol. 4, pp. 29–31.<br />
76 Illustrati<strong>on</strong>s of temple-foundati<strong>on</strong> legends, such as Yata Jizô engi emaki<br />
<strong>and</strong> Yûzû nenbutsu engi<br />
, also spread ideas of Jizô as a savior.<br />
77 Jizô bosatsu reigenki, pp. 42–45. Although they bear the same name, this scroll <strong>and</strong> the abovementi<strong>on</strong>ed<br />
text by Jitsuei are two different works.
HIRASAWA: The Inflatable, Collapsible Kingdom 23<br />
her to escape two out of three punishments—<strong>and</strong> we can assume that eventually,<br />
thanks to the merit of her having established the c<strong>on</strong>necti<strong>on</strong> with Jizô, she will<br />
escape hell altogether. Jizô’s efficacy <strong>and</strong> sacrificial exchange of his body for<br />
hers (migawari ) are more powerful than the laws of retributi<strong>on</strong>.<br />
Complicating matters of who is saved by whom <strong>and</strong> from what, Enma came<br />
to be perceived as a manifestati<strong>on</strong> of Jizô. The source of this c<strong>on</strong>necti<strong>on</strong> is<br />
thought to be Shilun jing, which describes Enma am<strong>on</strong>g forty-two appearances<br />
of Jizô, 78 <strong>and</strong> already in the ninth-century Nih<strong>on</strong> ryôiki we find King Enma telling<br />
a visitor from the l<strong>and</strong> of the living that he is “called the bodhisattva Jizô in your<br />
country.” 79 Eventually, with the rise of h<strong>on</strong>ji suijaku (“original ground/<br />
manifested trace”) thought in the eleventh to twelfth centuries, <strong>Japanese</strong> paintings<br />
of the ten kings came frequently to depict Jizô floating above Enma—<strong>and</strong><br />
to portray other buddhas or bodhisattvas suspended above the other nine kings<br />
as well. 80 (Figures 4 <strong>and</strong> 5 exhibit this development. 81 ) The exact religious <strong>and</strong><br />
ic<strong>on</strong>ographical background to this characteristic feature of medieval <strong>Japanese</strong><br />
portrayals of the ten kings is a subject of much debate.<br />
The idea that buddhas <strong>and</strong> bodhisattvas transform their appearance to teach<br />
sentient beings according to the latter’s level of underst<strong>and</strong>ing was well established<br />
in India <strong>and</strong> China. The Lotus Sutra, for example, describes the bodhisattva<br />
Kann<strong>on</strong> (Sk. Avalokiteśvara) as effecting thirty-three bodily transformati<strong>on</strong>s.<br />
82 In China, beginning in the fourth century, Buddhist m<strong>on</strong>ks began pairing<br />
the terms h<strong>on</strong> , “original,” with shaku , “trace,” to indicate the relati<strong>on</strong>ship<br />
between divine Buddhist identities <strong>and</strong> their historical appearances. These<br />
noti<strong>on</strong>s entered Japan in the Nara period. Early <strong>Japanese</strong> interpretati<strong>on</strong>s describe<br />
the appearance or incarnati<strong>on</strong> of remarkable men, such as Shôtoku Taishi<br />
(574–622), as shaku (or suijaku). At this juncture, the emphasis was <strong>on</strong> the<br />
sacred character of the figure so described rather than <strong>on</strong> its original identity.<br />
Later Buddhist texts began to apply suijaku <strong>and</strong> related terms such as henge<br />
or kegen to <strong>Japanese</strong> kami. From the late eleventh century, the c<strong>on</strong>cept<br />
of h<strong>on</strong>ji, then also referred to as h<strong>on</strong>gaku , began to take hold, <strong>and</strong> in the<br />
twelfth century the combined term h<strong>on</strong>ji suijaku came to indicate corresp<strong>on</strong>dences<br />
of Buddhist identities to preexisting local <strong>Japanese</strong> kami manifestati<strong>on</strong>s.<br />
83 The elements of h<strong>on</strong>ji suijaku thought may thus be traced to earlier Indian<br />
78 T 13:726a.<br />
79 Nih<strong>on</strong> ryôiki 3:9; pp. 143, 269; <strong>and</strong> Nakamura 1973, p. 234.<br />
80 On <strong>Japanese</strong> ten-king paintings, see Kajitani 1974; Nakano 1992; <strong>and</strong> Miya 1992.<br />
81 Note that the h<strong>on</strong>ji in figures 4 <strong>and</strong> 5, held by Jôfukuji, are larger than those in most <strong>Japanese</strong><br />
paintings of the ten kings. The set was painted between 1489 <strong>and</strong> 1490 by Tosa Mitsunobu<br />
. It is nearly identical to a roughly c<strong>on</strong>temporary Nis<strong>on</strong>’in set. See Miya 1992, p. 37.<br />
82 T 9:56c–58b.<br />
83 For a discussi<strong>on</strong> of the development of these terms, see Yoshida 2006. There is much research<br />
<strong>on</strong> h<strong>on</strong>ji suijaku. In English, see Teeuwen <strong>and</strong> Rambelli 2003. In Japan c<strong>on</strong>flati<strong>on</strong>s of Buddhas<br />
or bodhisattvas with other, often lesser deities in the Buddhist panthe<strong>on</strong> may have been perceived<br />
differently from c<strong>on</strong>flati<strong>on</strong>s with kami. Manabe Kôsai divides historical examples of<br />
combinati<strong>on</strong>s with Jizô into two categories: Jizô’s dôtai kegen are Enma, Amida,
24<br />
M<strong>on</strong>umenta Nipp<strong>on</strong>ica 63:1<br />
<strong>and</strong> Chinese noti<strong>on</strong>s, but their combinati<strong>on</strong> in Japan took <strong>on</strong> a distinct colorati<strong>on</strong><br />
<strong>and</strong> applicati<strong>on</strong>. 84 Much the same may be said of the ic<strong>on</strong>ography linking the ten<br />
kings to specific buddhas <strong>and</strong> bodhisattvas.<br />
Some scholars suggest that this ic<strong>on</strong>ography <strong>and</strong> its doctrinal foundati<strong>on</strong>s originated<br />
in China. 85 Similar imagery placing divinities above their manifestati<strong>on</strong>s<br />
can be seen in S<strong>on</strong>g dynasty paintings. Such visual corresp<strong>on</strong>dences, unrelated<br />
to the cult of the ten kings, entered Japan by the early twelfth century <strong>and</strong> would<br />
have been seen by <strong>Japanese</strong> m<strong>on</strong>ks before the ten kings became popular. 86 It is<br />
possible that such depicti<strong>on</strong>s influenced later <strong>Japanese</strong> ten-king imagery.<br />
Nevertheless, it is difficult to find exact Chinese parallels or precursors to the<br />
type of h<strong>on</strong>ji–ten kings imagery <strong>and</strong> doctrinal formulati<strong>on</strong>s that took shape in<br />
Japan. A scene in the m<strong>on</strong>umental st<strong>on</strong>e carvings at Baodingshan in<br />
Ch<strong>on</strong>gqing, dating from the twelfth century, for instance, shows ten buddhas <strong>and</strong><br />
bodhisattvas in medalli<strong>on</strong>-like halos presiding over a tableau of Jizô, the ten kings,<br />
<strong>and</strong> hell. Although the ic<strong>on</strong>ography appears similar to that found in <strong>Japanese</strong><br />
images of the kings, seven inscripti<strong>on</strong>s in the hell secti<strong>on</strong> of the carvings indicate<br />
a different c<strong>on</strong>text. Calling for c<strong>on</strong>templati<strong>on</strong> of ten Buddhist divinities to<br />
avoid ten hells, these inscripti<strong>on</strong>s allude to rites performed <strong>on</strong> ten days over the<br />
course of a m<strong>on</strong>th, as described in texts collectively known as Dizang pusa<br />
shizhairi<br />
(Jp. Jizô bosatsu jissai jitsu). Likewise, while the carvings<br />
visually coordinate the Buddhist divinities with the ten kings, the combinati<strong>on</strong>s<br />
do not corresp<strong>on</strong>d to any known groupings in <strong>Japanese</strong> texts or images<br />
of the kings. 87 Jizô’s central positi<strong>on</strong> am<strong>on</strong>g the kings in this tableau, similar to<br />
that seen in images found at Dunhuang, suggests his supreme authority over the<br />
ten kings, ensuring that their judgments are fair, <strong>and</strong> indicates his protecti<strong>on</strong> of<br />
Kann<strong>on</strong>, Bisham<strong>on</strong>ten , etc.; Jizô’s suijaku are Atago , the kami of Kasuga’s<br />
third shrine, Hie’s Jûzenji , Zaô G<strong>on</strong>gen , etc. See Manabe 1959, pp. 162–78.<br />
Manabe’s categorizati<strong>on</strong> indicates that he sees an historical tendency to distinguish between Indian<br />
kegen c<strong>on</strong>cepti<strong>on</strong>s <strong>and</strong> <strong>Japanese</strong> h<strong>on</strong>ji suijaku c<strong>on</strong>cepti<strong>on</strong>s.<br />
84 Of course, belief in temporary manifestati<strong>on</strong>s of bodhisattvas existed in China. Qingjing faxing<br />
jing<br />
(Jp. Shôjô hôgyô kyô), for example, claims bodhisattva identities for Laozi<br />
, K<strong>on</strong>gzi (C<strong>on</strong>fucius), <strong>and</strong> the latter’s disciple Yanhui . This passage was well known<br />
in Japan through Zhanran’s (711–782) quotati<strong>on</strong> of it in Zhiguan fuxing chuanh<strong>on</strong>g jue<br />
(Jp. Shikan bugyô dengu ketsu; T 46:343c) <strong>and</strong> historically was c<strong>on</strong>sidered a foundati<strong>on</strong>al<br />
example of h<strong>on</strong>ji suijaku thought. See Imahori 1990, pp. 79–88. A copy of most of Qingjing<br />
faxing jing, thought lost, recently surfaced at Nanatsudera; it differs slightly from the passage<br />
quoted by Zhanran, but fundamentally exhibits the same structure of associati<strong>on</strong>s. See Qingjing<br />
faxing jing, p. 13; <strong>and</strong> Ishibashi 1991. Menti<strong>on</strong> of the ten kings being manifestati<strong>on</strong>s of Daoist<br />
deities can be found in Daoist ten-king faith, suggesting a c<strong>on</strong>necti<strong>on</strong> with <strong>Japanese</strong> developments,<br />
but there is no clear evidence of influence. See Arami 2002; <strong>and</strong> Yoshioka 1989, pp. 359–63.<br />
85 On similar Chinese ic<strong>on</strong>ography, see the important early study by Shi Shouqian (Shi<br />
1985). For arguments that both the ic<strong>on</strong>ography <strong>and</strong> doctrine come from China, see the more<br />
recent Arami 2002; Nakano 1992; Takeda 1994; Takeda 1997; <strong>and</strong> Yajima 1990. Each takes a<br />
different approach.<br />
86 Shi 1985, pp. 608–11.<br />
87 Two Dizang pusa shizhairi texts discovered at Dunhuang (S. 2567 <strong>and</strong> S. 2566 in the Stein<br />
collecti<strong>on</strong> in the British Library) are compared with <strong>Japanese</strong> groupings in Arami 2002.
HIRASAWA: The Inflatable, Collapsible Kingdom 25<br />
sentient beings as they undergo judgment. 88 The images do not, however, prioritize<br />
his c<strong>on</strong>necti<strong>on</strong> to Enma.<br />
A comparable situati<strong>on</strong> obtains with hanging scrolls of the ten kings from<br />
Ningbo workshops. While Shiwang jing recensi<strong>on</strong>s depict Jizô together with the<br />
ten kings, <strong>and</strong> some of the surviving Ningbo paintings include an eleventh scroll<br />
dedicated to Jizô, most Ningbo paintings do not include h<strong>on</strong>ji-like entities above<br />
the kings, as can be seen from color plate 5. Some scholars suggest that the few<br />
Ningbo-style scrolls incorporating these elements, such as a portrayal of King<br />
Henjô bearing the inscripti<strong>on</strong> of Lu Xinzh<strong>on</strong>g from a set of scrolls from<br />
Shômyôji at Kanazawa Bunko (color plate 7), may have been<br />
commissi<strong>on</strong>ed by <strong>Japanese</strong> patr<strong>on</strong>s with these specificati<strong>on</strong>s, or that the paintings<br />
were touched up or painted in Japan, but this is still undetermined. 89 Notwithst<strong>and</strong>ing<br />
such possible excepti<strong>on</strong>s, later <strong>Japanese</strong> ten-king imagery that<br />
emphasizes h<strong>on</strong>ji-like c<strong>on</strong>necti<strong>on</strong>s with buddhas <strong>and</strong> bodhisattvas likely was<br />
informed by the parallel development of h<strong>on</strong>ji suijaku thought in Japan, <strong>and</strong> drew<br />
less from direct Chinese models than from Chinese ic<strong>on</strong>ography originally<br />
intended for related but distinct Buddhist c<strong>on</strong>cepts.<br />
Supporting this hypothesis, the relati<strong>on</strong>ship of each king to a Buddhist counterpart<br />
in early Kamakura-era paintings of the kings <strong>and</strong> in some of the scrolls<br />
attributed to Lu Xinzh<strong>on</strong>g varies from set to set <strong>and</strong> differs from patterns that<br />
emerged later. St<strong>and</strong>ard equati<strong>on</strong>s that eventually became popular were l<strong>on</strong>g<br />
thought to be based <strong>on</strong> the most comm<strong>on</strong>ly quoted recensi<strong>on</strong> of Jizô jûô kyô, but<br />
recent research casts doubt <strong>on</strong> whether early Jizô jûô kyô recensi<strong>on</strong>s that circulated<br />
during the medieval period included corresp<strong>on</strong>ding divinities. 90 The most<br />
popular pattern of buddha <strong>and</strong> bodhisattva corresp<strong>on</strong>dences may derive instead<br />
from Shiju hyaku innenshû<br />
, a Pure L<strong>and</strong>–related text compiled by<br />
Jûshin (1210–?) in 1257 that may have been disseminated by itinerant<br />
88 See Watanabe 1989, p. 152; <strong>and</strong> Arami 2002.<br />
89 A complete set of ten-king scrolls at Jôkyôji (Wakayama prefecture) also carries both<br />
the inscripti<strong>on</strong> of Lu Xinzh<strong>on</strong>g <strong>and</strong> medalli<strong>on</strong>s with bodhisattvas <strong>and</strong> buddhas. A signed set at<br />
Hônenji (Kagawa prefecture) has no illustrated divinities, but their names have been inked<br />
in, possibly a later <strong>Japanese</strong> additi<strong>on</strong>. Based <strong>on</strong> the clothing of the divinities in the five extant<br />
Shômyôji ten-king scrolls at Kanazawa Bunko, Takeda Kazuaki assumes that they are<br />
Chinese (Takeda 1997, p. 20). Suzuki Masako supposes that the Jôkyôji set may be a<br />
<strong>Japanese</strong> copy but does not rule out the possibility that it is the product of a Chinese workshop<br />
(in Jôkyôji no bunkazai, p. 57). Akazawa Eiji assumes it is Chinese (Akazawa 1995, p.<br />
445).<br />
90 Motoi Makiko observes that the recensi<strong>on</strong> printed in Dai Nih<strong>on</strong> zokuzôkyô lists each<br />
h<strong>on</strong>ji in a note beneath each king’s name, suggesting that they may not have been included in the<br />
body of the original text (Motoi 1998b). Shimizu Kunihiko says early recensi<strong>on</strong>s did not<br />
menti<strong>on</strong> h<strong>on</strong>ji (Shimizu 2002). C<strong>on</strong>clusive findings await more systematic comparis<strong>on</strong> of extant<br />
recensi<strong>on</strong>s. On alternate corresp<strong>on</strong>dences in the K<strong>on</strong>gôzanmaiin<br />
editi<strong>on</strong> of Jizô jûô<br />
kyô, see Watanabe 1989, pp. 168–69. For a comparis<strong>on</strong> of the h<strong>on</strong>ji in different recensi<strong>on</strong>s, see<br />
Motoi 1998b, p. 35; <strong>and</strong> Takeda 1997, p. 27. If Jizô jûô kyô were a Chinese text <strong>and</strong> if it originally<br />
included h<strong>on</strong>ji, it would serve as definitive evidence that associati<strong>on</strong> of the ten kings with<br />
h<strong>on</strong>ji originated in China (as assumed in Nakano 1992 <strong>and</strong> Takeda 1997), but recent research indicates<br />
otherwise.
26<br />
M<strong>on</strong>umenta Nipp<strong>on</strong>ica 63:1<br />
preachers of Pure L<strong>and</strong> faith. Other less comm<strong>on</strong> patterns can be traced to different<br />
sects. 91<br />
Fully developed h<strong>on</strong>ji suijaku thought, as illustrated in medieval suijaku m<strong>and</strong>alas,<br />
posited systematic <strong>on</strong>e-to-<strong>on</strong>e corresp<strong>on</strong>dences in local cultic c<strong>on</strong>texts.<br />
The cosmologies resulting from each grouping of h<strong>on</strong>ji identities repositi<strong>on</strong>ed<br />
local cults as central <strong>and</strong> universal. Some equati<strong>on</strong>s within a cult may have<br />
changed over time, reflecting political, ritual, or other needs, but each h<strong>on</strong>ji suijaku<br />
system balanced its h<strong>on</strong>ji to comprise a fixed m<strong>and</strong>alic universe, c<strong>on</strong>nected<br />
to a specific place or sect. Perhaps assignments of h<strong>on</strong>ji to the ten kings performed<br />
a similar functi<strong>on</strong>, associating ultimate jurisdicti<strong>on</strong> over the afterlife with<br />
particular sectarian c<strong>on</strong>texts.<br />
Alterati<strong>on</strong>s made when copying a c<strong>on</strong>tinental set of ten-king scrolls now in<br />
the Seikadô Bunko Art Museum, thought to be from the fourteenth century, also<br />
suggest the development of this ic<strong>on</strong>ographic universe in Japan. In the original,<br />
a small figure of Jizô floats above Enma, but the set has no other h<strong>on</strong>ji-like divinities.<br />
Sixteenth-century <strong>Japanese</strong> copies bel<strong>on</strong>ging to Sôjiji (Wakayama<br />
prefecture) add h<strong>on</strong>ji above the other kings. Only three hanging scrolls of the<br />
copy set are extant, but they show the expansi<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong> distributi<strong>on</strong> throughout<br />
other scrolls of images of the six realms; the Seikadô original <strong>on</strong>ly indicates the<br />
six realms in the final scroll. <strong>Hell</strong> also occupies far more compositi<strong>on</strong>al space<br />
compared to the original. Takasu Jun labels such innovati<strong>on</strong>s rokudô jûô<br />
zu (“paintings of the six realms <strong>and</strong> the ten kings”). In a set of such<br />
paintings at Chôgakuji (Nara prefecture), he notes, the ten kings, each<br />
with its h<strong>on</strong>ji, line up across the top of the scrolls, representing the process of<br />
judgment through time (see color plate 8). Vast scenes of hell <strong>and</strong> the six realms<br />
below the kings evoke a spatial cosmology, subject to the temporal framework<br />
of judgment, <strong>and</strong> the scrolls c<strong>on</strong>clude with a bridge leading from Abi hell directly<br />
to a raigô (“greeting”) by Amida <strong>and</strong> his entourage, welcoming sinners to<br />
the Pure L<strong>and</strong>. According to Takasu, these images do not merely patch together two<br />
traditi<strong>on</strong>s; they rec<strong>on</strong>figure <strong>and</strong> reinvigorate them as a m<strong>and</strong>atory circuit through<br />
hell that ends in salvati<strong>on</strong>—<strong>and</strong> that audiences can experience vicariously. 92<br />
The inclusi<strong>on</strong> of h<strong>on</strong>ji above the kings attest that wisdom <strong>and</strong> compassi<strong>on</strong><br />
underlie their seemingly harsh verdicts. As corresp<strong>on</strong>dences of originals to manifestati<strong>on</strong>s<br />
settled into st<strong>and</strong>ard formulae, the importance—<strong>and</strong> size—of h<strong>on</strong>ji<br />
increased. This can be seen in the Jôfukuji set (figures 4 <strong>and</strong> 5) <strong>and</strong> reached an<br />
extreme in a fourteenth-century painting of a colossal Jizô appearing to st<strong>and</strong><br />
directly <strong>on</strong> top of Enma’s head. 93 In another, later medieval cult, three buddhas<br />
associated with esoteric Buddhism joined the ten h<strong>on</strong>ji of the kings. Eventually<br />
the suijaku completely fell away from the ic<strong>on</strong>ography, leaving <strong>on</strong>ly images of<br />
91 Yajima 1990, p. 72; <strong>and</strong> Shimizu 2002, pp. 191–92. Also see Shiju hyaku innenshû, pp. 61–73.<br />
92 See Takasu 1992; Takasu 1993; <strong>and</strong> Takasu 1999–2000.<br />
93 For a reproducti<strong>on</strong>, see Nakano 1992, p. 65.
HIRASAWA: The Inflatable, Collapsible Kingdom 27<br />
thirteen buddhas ( jûsanbutsu ) for mortuary rites, without visual references<br />
to judgment or hell. 94<br />
The late medieval period, reflecting in part the impact of the M<strong>on</strong>gol invasi<strong>on</strong>s<br />
of 1274 <strong>and</strong> 1281, saw a heightened sense of what was indigenous <strong>and</strong> an increased<br />
interest in the guardianship of Japan’s kami. Repudiating the fruits of<br />
centuries of self-imposed cultural col<strong>on</strong>ialism, some intellectuals began to<br />
reverse traditi<strong>on</strong>al h<strong>on</strong>ji suijaku hierarchies, recasting native kami as “originals,”<br />
with buddhas <strong>and</strong> bodhisattvas as their mere manifestati<strong>on</strong>s. This deliberate<br />
localizing of supernatural power extended even to hell. In <strong>on</strong>e story, a <strong>Japanese</strong><br />
deity vows that sentient beings in Japan would fall into a <strong>Japanese</strong> hell so that<br />
they might be saved from foreign hells. 95 Another story relates that the Kasuga<br />
deity similarly provides devotees with a hell under Kasuga meadows <strong>and</strong><br />
assists people suffering there, thanks in part to Jizô’s h<strong>on</strong>ji relati<strong>on</strong>ship to <strong>on</strong>e<br />
of its shrines. 96<br />
Enma’s Jizô identity may lie behind an Edo-era tale of an old woman with an<br />
eye disease who brings her favorite food, k<strong>on</strong>nyaku, to a sculpture of Enma at<br />
Genkakuji . Enma rewards her faith <strong>and</strong> generosity by exchanging <strong>on</strong>e of<br />
his eyes for hers. Corroborating the story, <strong>on</strong>e of the image’s crystal eyes is<br />
clouded over as if by a cataract, <strong>and</strong> believers with eye ailments still pile gifts<br />
of k<strong>on</strong>nyaku before the image twice a year. 97 Enma’s willingness to take <strong>on</strong> our<br />
hardships further interferes with ostensible presumpti<strong>on</strong>s of sp<strong>on</strong>taneous administrati<strong>on</strong><br />
of the laws of karma <strong>and</strong> inevitable retributi<strong>on</strong>.<br />
Sundering <strong>Hell</strong><br />
Some of these vagaries, excepti<strong>on</strong>s, <strong>and</strong> double identities may seem anomalous<br />
or c<strong>on</strong>tradictory, but they were, in fact, important comp<strong>on</strong>ents of larger c<strong>on</strong>cepti<strong>on</strong>s<br />
of hell. One of the fifteen Shôjuraigôji rokudô-e scrolls is based <strong>on</strong> a<br />
story in Ôjôyôshû (citing the no-l<strong>on</strong>ger-extant Youposai jie jing , Jp.<br />
Ubasoku kai kyô) where a man c<strong>on</strong>demned to hell snaps his fingers three times,<br />
utters praise of the buddha, <strong>and</strong> is released. 98 In the image, hell’s cauldr<strong>on</strong> cracks;<br />
its waters cool; lotuses bloom, lifting sinners out of hell; <strong>and</strong> the man is escorted<br />
94 This may initially have been a Shing<strong>on</strong> innovati<strong>on</strong>, designed to compete with Pure L<strong>and</strong> rites.<br />
Early jûsanbutsu seem to have added three representati<strong>on</strong>s of Dainichi; in the early fifteenth century,<br />
these became Dainichi, Ashuku, <strong>and</strong> Kokûzô, an esoteric arrangement from the Womb m<strong>and</strong>ala.<br />
See Yajima 1990. Takeda Kazuaki traces the general evoluti<strong>on</strong> of this imagery as follows:<br />
ten kings with ten buddhas; ten kings with eleven buddhas; eleven buddhas (the kings vanish);<br />
<strong>and</strong> finally, thirteen buddhas. Takeda 1997. On the cult of thirteen buddhas, see Watanabe 1989.<br />
95 “Shintô zôzôshû” (manuscript). The text in the sec<strong>on</strong>d part of “Shintô zôzôshû” is also found<br />
in Sannô shintô hiyôshû, a collecti<strong>on</strong> from 1579. For a published versi<strong>on</strong> of the passage referred<br />
to here, readers may refer to Sannô shintô hiyôshû, p. 392.<br />
96 See the thirteenth-century Shasekishû 1:6; p. 71; <strong>and</strong> Morrell 1985, pp. 85–86.<br />
97 See Matsuzaki 1991, pp. 195–98. The image, situated in a temple in Bunkyô ward,<br />
Tokyo, is known as K<strong>on</strong>nyaku Enma (a pun <strong>on</strong> k<strong>on</strong>nyaku , a gelatinous, rubbery food made<br />
from a root, <strong>and</strong> k<strong>on</strong>’yaku , “to suffer” or “disaster”) or as Migawari Enma.<br />
98 Ôjôyôshû; T 84:76ab.
28<br />
M<strong>on</strong>umenta Nipp<strong>on</strong>ica 63:1<br />
to the heavenly realm. 99 The instability of hell, illustrated here as a rupturing of<br />
its infrastructure, was an integral part of the schema.<br />
Buddhist texts <strong>and</strong> didactic stories describe many formulae known to be effective<br />
for breaking out of hell, including taking refuge in Buddhism, reciting passages<br />
from scriptures, <strong>and</strong> int<strong>on</strong>ing spells. A famous story in the seventh-century<br />
Huayan jing zhuanji (Jp. Keg<strong>on</strong> gyô denki), a history of Huayan jing<br />
(Jp. Keg<strong>on</strong> gyô) that includes biographies of its translators <strong>and</strong> commentary<br />
writers, 100 tells of a man identified <strong>on</strong>ly as Wang who dies <strong>and</strong> is taken<br />
to hell’s gate. There Jizô teaches him a verse, “If people want to know the buddhas<br />
of all times, they should c<strong>on</strong>template in this way: the heart creates all of<br />
the buddhas,” <strong>and</strong> instructs him that it will enable him to dispel hell. Wang recites<br />
this phrase, the last four lines of a verse from the Huayan jing that came to be<br />
known as “Yuishinge” ([Heart-] mind Only Verse), <strong>and</strong> is ultimately<br />
released back into his life by King Enma. All of those within earshot of his voice<br />
when he uttered the verse are also liberated. 101 The lines also became known as<br />
“Hajigokuge” (<strong>Hell</strong>-tearing Verse), with many other texts also attesting<br />
to their efficacy. 102 Earlier secti<strong>on</strong>s of “Yuishinge” incorporate the same<br />
metaphor portraying the heart as a skilled painter found in Zhengfa nianchu jing,<br />
but instead of advocating escape from the cycle of death <strong>and</strong> rebirth, Huayan<br />
jing teaches that c<strong>on</strong>templating the heart leads to comprehensi<strong>on</strong> of ultimate<br />
truth. There is no distincti<strong>on</strong>, the sutra expounds, between the heart, buddhas,<br />
<strong>and</strong> all living beings. 103 This realizati<strong>on</strong> can transform hell—as can, in the story<br />
of Wang, a mere four lines from a passage that teaches it. Ôjôyôshû also quotes<br />
Wang’s tale, 104 <strong>and</strong> it became well known in Japan. It was the basis for <strong>on</strong>e of<br />
the illustrati<strong>on</strong>s planned for the Daigoji Enma hall.<br />
The term hajigoku (“hell tearing”) refers to various methods of escaping<br />
hell, 105 but despite its implicati<strong>on</strong> of hell’s destructi<strong>on</strong>, it more accurately<br />
describes the eradicati<strong>on</strong> of evil karma that casts people into hell. 106 Ritual texts<br />
99 For more <strong>on</strong> this ic<strong>on</strong>ography, see the author’s “Cracking Cauldr<strong>on</strong>s <strong>and</strong> Babies <strong>on</strong> Blossoms:<br />
The Development of Salvati<strong>on</strong> Motifs in <strong>Japanese</strong> <strong>Hell</strong> Painting,” forthcoming.<br />
100 Compiled by Fazang (643–712) <strong>and</strong> exp<strong>and</strong>ed up<strong>on</strong> by his disciples.<br />
101 T 51:167a. The passage quoted in this story is from the sixty-volume Huayan jing<br />
(Dafangguangfo huayan jing<br />
, Jp. Daihôkôbutsu keg<strong>on</strong> gyô); T 9:466a.<br />
102 See Watari 1994. “Yuishinge” in the eighty-volume Huayan jing is slightly different, but its<br />
last lines were also known as a “hell-tearing verse.” See T 10:102ab.<br />
103 For a full translati<strong>on</strong> of “Yuishinge” in the eighty-volume versi<strong>on</strong> of Huayan jing, see Cleary<br />
1993, p. 452. The heart metaphor is in the two Chinese translati<strong>on</strong>s of the Huayan jing at T 9:465c;<br />
<strong>and</strong> T 10:102a. For a comparis<strong>on</strong> of the painter metaphor in Zhengfa nianchu jing <strong>and</strong> Huayan<br />
jing, see Kimura 1989.<br />
104 T 84:73c.<br />
105 On hajigoku, see Ishida 1968, pp. 237–46; Ishida 1998, pp. 134–37; <strong>and</strong> Matsunaga 1998,<br />
pp. 237–39.<br />
106 Misaki 1992, pp. 137–41. Misaki Ryôshû h , looking for initial <strong>and</strong> mutual influences<br />
between Daoism <strong>and</strong> Buddhism, here also c<strong>on</strong>siders hell sundering in a Daoist c<strong>on</strong>text. For a parodically<br />
literal interpretati<strong>on</strong> of hell tearing—where warriors storm <strong>and</strong> wreck hell’s gates <strong>and</strong><br />
slay its dem<strong>on</strong>s, but ultimately cannot escape its torments until they seek salvati<strong>on</strong> through<br />
Amida—see the Edo-era Yoshitsune jigoku yaburi.
Plate 1. Torment by kamatsuchû, Anjûin Jigoku zôshi (detail). Nati<strong>on</strong>al<br />
Treasure. Courtesy of Tokyo Nati<strong>on</strong>al Museum.<br />
Plate 2. Geshin jigoku, Masuda-ke kô versi<strong>on</strong> Jigoku zôshi (detail). Nati<strong>on</strong>al Treasure.<br />
Courtesy of Miho Museum. Image reproduced from Bukkyô setsuwa no bijutsu.
Plate 3. Kokujô jigoku scroll, Rokudô-e.<br />
Courtesy of Shôjuraigôji, Ôtsu. Nati<strong>on</strong>al<br />
Treasure. Image reproduced from Kokuhô<br />
rokudô-e, Kanai Morio , photographer.
Plate 4. Abi jigoku scroll, Rokudô-e. Courtesy<br />
of Shôjuraigôji. Nati<strong>on</strong>al Treasure.<br />
Image reproduced from Kokuhô rokudôe,<br />
Kanai Morio, photographer.
Plate 5. Shinkô scroll, Jûô zu, inscribed Lu Xinzh<strong>on</strong>g . Important<br />
Cultural Property. Courtesy of Nara Nati<strong>on</strong>al Museum. Image reproduced<br />
from Nakano 1992.
Plate 6. Jizô bosatsu reigenki (detail). Courtesy of Freer Gallery of Art, Smiths<strong>on</strong>ian Instituti<strong>on</strong>,<br />
Washingt<strong>on</strong>, D.C.: Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1907.375a.<br />
Plate 7. Henjô scroll, Jûô zu. Courtesy of Shômyôji,<br />
Kanazawa Bunko. Image reproduced from Kanazawa<br />
Bunko no meihô.
Plate 8. Gokuraku jigoku zu (detail of the last three scrolls). Courtesy of Chôgakuji,<br />
Nara prefecture. Image reproduced from Jigoku yûran.
Plate 9. End<strong>on</strong> kanjin jippôkai<br />
zu, from Fozu t<strong>on</strong>gji. T 49:448a.<br />
, Toyama prefec-<br />
Plate 10. Kumano kanjin jikkai zu. Courtesy of Dairakuji<br />
ture. Image reproduced from Jigoku yûran.
Plate 12. Kawanabe Kyôsai, Jigoku<br />
no bunmei kaika .<br />
Courtesy of the Kawanabe Kyôsai<br />
Bijutsukan .<br />
Plate 11. Katsukawa Shunshô, <strong>Japanese</strong>, 1726–<br />
1792, Kô Sûkoku, <strong>Japanese</strong>, 1730–1804. Emma,<br />
the Lord of the Realm of Death, <strong>and</strong> his Jade<br />
Mirror (detail), Edo period, about 1785–1786<br />
(Tenmei 5–6), Hanging scroll; ink <strong>and</strong> color <strong>on</strong><br />
silk. Image: 89.9 \ 34.8 cm (35 3/8 \ 13 11/16<br />
in.). Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Bost<strong>on</strong>,<br />
William Sturgis Bigelow Collecti<strong>on</strong>, 11.7773.<br />
Photograph © 2008 Museum of Fine Arts, Bost<strong>on</strong>.
HIRASAWA: The Inflatable, Collapsible Kingdom 29<br />
with hajigoku in their titles, used to effect salvati<strong>on</strong>, include three apocryphal<br />
works <strong>on</strong> hell tearing thought to have been written in China during the first half<br />
of the ninth century: Podiyu tuolu<strong>on</strong>i yigui<br />
(Jp. Hajigoku darani<br />
giki), Podiyu yigui (Jp. Hajigoku giki), <strong>and</strong> Sanzh<strong>on</strong>g xidi gui<br />
(Jp. Sanshu shitchi ki). 107 These vary in length <strong>and</strong> c<strong>on</strong>tent, but each<br />
describes three grades of shitchi (“perfecti<strong>on</strong>”) mantra, the highest level<br />
mantra being a ban ran kan ken , <strong>and</strong> their efficacy for “destroying”<br />
hell. Referring to a story about the heavenly being Zenjû Tenshi from<br />
the Indian sutra Foding zunsheng tuolu<strong>on</strong>i jing<br />
(Jp. Butchô<br />
s<strong>on</strong>shô darani kyô), the first two texts menti<strong>on</strong> a bodhisattva named Kikyô<br />
(a.k.a. Zenjû Tenshi). 108 In this tale Taishaku (Sk. Indra) pities Zenjû Tenshi<br />
for karma that dictates seven rebirths in the realm of animals <strong>and</strong> in hell. Taishaku<br />
asks the Buddha why Zenjû Tenshi must endure such a fate, <strong>and</strong> the Buddha<br />
teaches him a spell, “Nyorai butchô s<strong>on</strong>shô”<br />
, that will save Zenjû<br />
Tenshi. With this spell, the Buddha explains, “all hells can be sundered.” The<br />
tale’s popularity can be gauged from its many Chinese translati<strong>on</strong>s, commentaries,<br />
<strong>and</strong> related ritual texts. In <strong>on</strong>e Chinese story a man named Wang Shaofu<br />
dies <strong>and</strong> returns to life to report that his recitati<strong>on</strong> of the spell caused those<br />
he encountered in the afterlife to be reborn in heaven. He closed his eyes while<br />
reciting it, <strong>and</strong> by the time he finished they had vanished. 109 The paintings<br />
intended for the walls of the Daigoji Enma hall included this instance of hell<br />
tearing, too.<br />
A chapter <strong>on</strong> “S<strong>on</strong>shô” practice in Keiran shûyôshû<br />
(hereafter<br />
Keiran shû), a fourteenth-century collecti<strong>on</strong> of medieval syncretic <strong>and</strong> esoteric<br />
thought assembled by the m<strong>on</strong>k Kôshû (1276–1350), introduces the<br />
anecdote about Zenjû Tenshi as an example of superficial underst<strong>and</strong>ing of<br />
hajigoku. 110 Zenjû Tenshi merely recites the mantras given to him <strong>and</strong> has no<br />
comprehensi<strong>on</strong> of deeper truth. According to Keiran shû, the more profound<br />
meaning of hajigoku is to transform existence from <strong>on</strong>e that is subject to rebirths<br />
107 The full titles are Foding zunshengxin podiyu zhuanyezhang chusanjie mimi tuolu<strong>on</strong>i<br />
(Jp. Butchô s<strong>on</strong>shôshin hajigoku tengosshô shutsusangai himitsu<br />
darani); Foding zunshengxin podiyu zhuanyezhang chusanjie mimi sanshen foguo sanzh<strong>on</strong>g<br />
xidi zhenyan yigui<br />
(Jp. Butchô<br />
s<strong>on</strong>shôshin hajigoku tengosshô shutsusangai himitsu sanjin bukka sanshu shitchi shing<strong>on</strong> giki);<br />
<strong>and</strong> Sanzh<strong>on</strong>g xidi podiyu zhuanyezhang chusanjie mimi tuolu<strong>on</strong>i fa<br />
(Jp. Sanshu shitchi hajigoku tengosshô shutsusangai himitsu darani hô), respectively.<br />
See T 18:909b–915c. On these texts, see Matsunaga 1998, pp. 231–49; <strong>and</strong> Misaki 1988,<br />
pp. 499–508. Another seventh-century text explains that <strong>on</strong>e can form a hell-sundering mudrâ<br />
whereby “the gates of hell open <strong>and</strong> all the beings suffering [there] are at <strong>on</strong>ce liberated—<strong>and</strong><br />
King Enmara [sic] rejoices.” See Guanzizai pusa suixinzhou jing<br />
(Jp. Kanjizai<br />
bosatsu zuishinshu kyô); T 20:460b.<br />
108 See, for example, T 19:349a–c.<br />
109 Jiaju lingyan foding zunsheng tuolu<strong>on</strong>i ji (Jp. Kaku reigen butchô<br />
s<strong>on</strong>shô darani ki); T 19:386bc.<br />
110 The passage referred to here <strong>and</strong> in the following paragraphs is at T 76:558c–559a; I have<br />
also c<strong>on</strong>sulted a copy bel<strong>on</strong>ging to the Shôkyôzô repository at Saikyôji in Ôtsu.<br />
Here Zenjû Tenshi is taught the three shitchi mantras instead of “Nyorai butchô s<strong>on</strong>shô.”
30<br />
M<strong>on</strong>umenta Nipp<strong>on</strong>ica 63:1<br />
based <strong>on</strong> karma into <strong>on</strong>e that is an embodiment of enlightenment. The text explains<br />
that the sp<strong>on</strong>taneous, eternal triune Buddha body (musa no sanjin<br />
), encompassing everything, is identical to the three shitchi, to Abi hell, <strong>and</strong><br />
to the highest realizati<strong>on</strong>s of buddhahood. Enlightened underst<strong>and</strong>ing of this<br />
unfailingly tears hell. Such underst<strong>and</strong>ing, the text explains, has both exoteric<br />
<strong>and</strong> esoteric aspects.<br />
In an “exoteric” comprehensi<strong>on</strong>, c<strong>on</strong>templati<strong>on</strong> of the heart enables the realizati<strong>on</strong><br />
that all of the dharma world is Birushana’s (Sk. Vairocana) envir<strong>on</strong>ment<br />
<strong>and</strong> body (eshô ) <strong>and</strong> that hell is located in the Buddha’s heart. 111<br />
The esoteric approach expresses this underst<strong>and</strong>ing through ritual practice (phenomena).<br />
<strong>Hell</strong> is Dainichi’s (Sk. Mahâvairocana) Pure L<strong>and</strong> of the Diam<strong>on</strong>d<br />
<strong>and</strong> Womb worlds, <strong>and</strong> the m<strong>and</strong>ala is in our hearts. Keiran shû supports the<br />
latter underst<strong>and</strong>ing with the medieval logic of analogy, borrowing ideas from<br />
established esoteric c<strong>on</strong>cepti<strong>on</strong>s. Our nine shiki (“c<strong>on</strong>sciousnesses”), the text<br />
explains, are the eight petals <strong>and</strong> nine divinities of the Womb m<strong>and</strong>ala—each<br />
petal c<strong>on</strong>taining a buddha or bodhisattva, with Dainichi at the center, adding up<br />
to a total of nine. The circular Jôhari mirror in the center of hell is our ninth shiki,<br />
which is the heart’s mo<strong>on</strong>-like (mirror-like) orb, also equated with Dainichi.<br />
Eight other mirrors in Enma’s kingdom are aligned with the other eight shiki <strong>and</strong><br />
the other eight divinities of the flower platform. 112 Through c<strong>on</strong>templati<strong>on</strong>, the<br />
m<strong>and</strong>ala world <strong>and</strong> hell are thus equated with the heart <strong>and</strong> shiki of the practiti<strong>on</strong>er.<br />
Furthermore, the l<strong>and</strong>scape of the eight hot hells is c<strong>on</strong>joined with the<br />
Womb world <strong>and</strong> principle, <strong>and</strong> the l<strong>and</strong>scape of the eight cold hells linked to<br />
the Diam<strong>on</strong>d world <strong>and</strong> wisdom. 113 The passage c<strong>on</strong>cludes that if hell is the Pure<br />
L<strong>and</strong> of the universal Buddha Dainichi’s two worlds, the living beings in hell<br />
are the sp<strong>on</strong>taneous, eternal Buddha-body trinity. When <strong>on</strong>e underst<strong>and</strong>s this,<br />
Keiran shû asserts, there is no hell that cannot be torn.<br />
The more complicated doctrines <strong>and</strong> rituals described above tended to remain<br />
the c<strong>on</strong>cern of Buddhist intellectuals <strong>and</strong> practiti<strong>on</strong>ers, but certain principles<br />
were also taught to lay believers through images called End<strong>on</strong> kanjin jippôkai<br />
zu<br />
. C<strong>on</strong>solidating <strong>and</strong> simplifying doctrines in graphic form,<br />
these portrayed inhabitants of the ten worlds emanating from the character for<br />
heart or mind (shin ), illustrating the Tiantai doctrine that the entire universe<br />
111 This underst<strong>and</strong>ing is based <strong>on</strong> the Tiantai doctrines of ichinen sanzen (“the three<br />
thous<strong>and</strong> worlds in <strong>on</strong>e thought”) <strong>and</strong> isshin sangan (“c<strong>on</strong>templati<strong>on</strong> of emptiness, phenomena,<br />
<strong>and</strong> their balance in <strong>on</strong>e heart-mind”). The text also references the eighth-century Tiantai<br />
m<strong>on</strong>k Zhanran’s Jinpi lun (Jp. K<strong>on</strong>bei r<strong>on</strong>; also Jingangpi , Jp. K<strong>on</strong>gôbei); T<br />
46:781a.<br />
112 On c<strong>on</strong>necti<strong>on</strong>s in the Podiyu yigui hell-tearing text between the nine shiki (the ninth being<br />
amarashiki ), the nine-layered mo<strong>on</strong> rings, <strong>and</strong> the eight petals <strong>and</strong> nine divinities of the<br />
Womb m<strong>and</strong>ala, see T 18:913c–914a; <strong>and</strong> Misaki 1988, pp. 505–507. Also see the descripti<strong>on</strong> of<br />
the Jôhari <strong>and</strong> eight other karma mirrors in Jizô jûô kyô, p. 771.<br />
113 Keiran shû uses the words mitsug<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong> kezô , which in <strong>Japanese</strong> esoteric thought<br />
refer to the two worlds. See Horiuchi 2000.
HIRASAWA: The Inflatable, Collapsible Kingdom 31<br />
is c<strong>on</strong>tained in a single thought. 114 The Tiantai m<strong>on</strong>k Zunshi (964–1032)<br />
formulated the ic<strong>on</strong>ographical prototype for these illustrati<strong>on</strong>s; in roughly 1023<br />
his disciple Qinruo disseminated them in a printed editi<strong>on</strong> with an introducti<strong>on</strong><br />
that quotes the eighty-volume Huayan jing hell-tearing verse. 115 Other<br />
texts c<strong>on</strong>tributed to the disseminati<strong>on</strong> of this work. The 1141 Tianzhu bieji<br />
(Jp. Tenjiku besshû) included similar c<strong>on</strong>tent, without the diagram. Fozu<br />
t<strong>on</strong>gji (Jp. Busso tôki), compiled in 1271, c<strong>on</strong>tains a similar diagram<br />
surrounded by the hell-tearing verse (see color plate 9). Single-sheet printed variati<strong>on</strong>s<br />
of these illustrati<strong>on</strong>s of doctrine (many including the hell-tearing verse)<br />
circulated widely in Japan during the early modern period. 116<br />
In another pictorializati<strong>on</strong> of this doctrine, itinerant preachers utilized paintings<br />
called Kumano kanjin jikkai zu<br />
(or Kumano kanjin jikkai<br />
m<strong>and</strong>ara<br />
; see color plate 10). 117 These maintain to some<br />
extent the relatively even distributi<strong>on</strong> of the ten realms, with ten red lines radiating<br />
out from the central character for heart to representati<strong>on</strong>s of each realm, but<br />
abbreviate some realms <strong>and</strong> greatly exp<strong>and</strong> the human <strong>and</strong> hell secti<strong>on</strong>s. The<br />
arrangement informs diagrammatic doctrinal indicati<strong>on</strong>s with the impact of hell<br />
painting <strong>and</strong> a clear c<strong>on</strong>necti<strong>on</strong> to human life. The character for heart in such<br />
imagery came to symbolize salvati<strong>on</strong> or rebirth in the Pure L<strong>and</strong>. 118<br />
<strong>Hell</strong> had developed unique, well-defined architectural <strong>and</strong> geographical delineati<strong>on</strong>,<br />
but it was as easy <strong>and</strong> as difficult to master as the mind or heart. Rituals,<br />
a sense of hell’s relativity, <strong>and</strong> its increased c<strong>on</strong>flati<strong>on</strong> with this world made it<br />
more manageable—<strong>and</strong> perhaps a little less frightening.<br />
The Devastati<strong>on</strong>s of Humor<br />
During the Edo period hell imagery proliferated as never before. Artists had a<br />
prescribed image bank to draw <strong>on</strong>; ic<strong>on</strong>ographical elements in countless<br />
paintings remain traceable to templates established by the Ningbo-style <strong>and</strong><br />
Shôjuraigôji hell paintings. The performance of hell involved a st<strong>and</strong>ard set of<br />
players, backdrops, <strong>and</strong> props, <strong>and</strong> a pithy, repetitive visual vocabulary. Artists<br />
114 Expounded, for example, by the Tiantai patriarch Zhiyi (538–597) in Mohe zhiguan<br />
(Jp. Maka shikan); T 46:54a. The ten realms are those of hell, hungry ghost, animal, asura,<br />
human, heavenly being, śrâvaka, pratyekabuddha, bodhisattva, <strong>and</strong> buddha.<br />
115 Published while Zunshi was alive, presumably with his approval.<br />
116 The diagram published with the text in Wanzi xuzangjing (<strong>and</strong> originally in Dai Nih<strong>on</strong><br />
zokuzôkyô<br />
) is not actually from the 1141 Tianzhu bieji. See Agio 1999; Tianzhu<br />
bieji, p. 270; <strong>and</strong> Fozu t<strong>on</strong>gji; T 49:448a. Qinruo’s quotati<strong>on</strong> of the Huayan jing hell-tearing verse<br />
in a writing about the ten worlds is c<strong>on</strong>sistent with Tiantai thought, since Zhiyi quotes the discussi<strong>on</strong><br />
of the heart-painter from the first part of the “Yuishinge” (T 46:52c). The Tiantai c<strong>on</strong>necti<strong>on</strong><br />
is clear even though he quotes the sixty-volume Huayan jing versi<strong>on</strong> (T 9:465c) <strong>and</strong> not<br />
the verse from the eighty-volume translati<strong>on</strong> inscribed <strong>on</strong> the diagrams. On the influence of<br />
Huayan jing <strong>on</strong> Zhiyi’s thought, see Kimura 1977, pp. 210–13.<br />
117 Some pr<strong>on</strong>ounce kanjin as kanshin. There is a great deal of research <strong>on</strong> these images. See,<br />
for example, Ogurisu 2004 <strong>and</strong> Nei 2007.<br />
118 See Ishiguro 2006. The heart-mind was also important in early modern C<strong>on</strong>fucian <strong>and</strong> Shinto<br />
thought.
32<br />
M<strong>on</strong>umenta Nipp<strong>on</strong>ica 63:1<br />
freely combined or isolated comp<strong>on</strong>ents to suit the tastes <strong>and</strong> dem<strong>and</strong>s of patr<strong>on</strong>s<br />
<strong>and</strong> audiences.<br />
Many temples owned paintings of the ten kings. Typically, each king had his<br />
own scroll, shared with a h<strong>on</strong>ji, an assortment of officers, dem<strong>on</strong>s, <strong>and</strong> defendants,<br />
<strong>and</strong> vignettes of hell or other realms, as in paintings we have c<strong>on</strong>sidered.<br />
There were also innovati<strong>on</strong>s, such as those seen in a set of seven hell paintings<br />
at Zenshôji (Ishikawa prefecture) that depict spindly sinners mauled by<br />
athletic dem<strong>on</strong>s against a spare brownish background, each scene divided from<br />
the next by geometrically shaded framing. The <strong>on</strong>ly king represented is Enma,<br />
sitting at his desk in <strong>on</strong>e scroll <strong>and</strong> looming over hell’s cauldr<strong>on</strong> in another, as<br />
if orchestrating its tortures amidst the flames (see figure 6). Dem<strong>on</strong>s drive four<br />
oxen over the t<strong>on</strong>gue of <strong>on</strong>e sinner, while other sinners are attacked by dogs,<br />
crows, insects, foxes, mice, fish, snakes, drag<strong>on</strong>s <strong>and</strong> other mythical beasts, a<br />
m<strong>on</strong>strous turtle, <strong>and</strong> even an elephant. 119<br />
<strong>Hell</strong> imagery was displayed routinely at temples, festivals, <strong>and</strong> marketplaces.<br />
In the late medieval <strong>and</strong> early modern periods, Kumano bikuni (“Kumano nuns”)<br />
used portable Kumano kanjin jikkai zu for etoki picture narrati<strong>on</strong>, c<strong>on</strong>tributing<br />
to the presence of hell in the streets. These paintings incorporated new<br />
hells for women, such as the <strong>Hell</strong> of the Blood Lake, the <strong>Hell</strong> of Barren Women,<br />
<strong>and</strong> the <strong>Hell</strong> of Two Women, further transforming <strong>Japanese</strong> c<strong>on</strong>cepti<strong>on</strong>s. Etoki<br />
performances of Tateyama m<strong>and</strong>ara by priests from the foothills of<br />
Tateyama in present-day Toyama prefecture added to the currency of women’s<br />
hells. Known as a site of hell since the classical period, the mountain became<br />
c<strong>on</strong>nected to women’s salvati<strong>on</strong> during the early modern period through a new<br />
c<strong>on</strong>cocti<strong>on</strong> of hell <strong>and</strong> salvati<strong>on</strong> motifs. 120 These types of images rendered hell<br />
in shorth<strong>and</strong>. Reduced to the most rudimentary elements, scenes of Enma at his<br />
desk, sinners chased by dem<strong>on</strong>s, t<strong>on</strong>gues extracted, <strong>and</strong> bodies pulverized or<br />
falling into fire were nevertheless instantly recognizable. Such images had become<br />
so ubiquitous <strong>and</strong> deeply etched in the popular c<strong>on</strong>sciousness that a visual<br />
hint sufficed to summ<strong>on</strong> a host of terrifying stories <strong>and</strong> images.<br />
Dating back at least to the early eighteenth century, nozoki karakuri<br />
were another innovati<strong>on</strong> in the public display of hell imagery. Viewers peeked<br />
into a box at a series of painted scenes for which transparent paper placed strategically<br />
over scored secti<strong>on</strong>s <strong>and</strong> lit from behind provided depth <strong>and</strong> drama. <strong>Hell</strong><br />
<strong>and</strong> heaven were am<strong>on</strong>g the oldest themes displayed in these miniature theaters.<br />
121 Much as with the preaching of Kumano bikuni, nozoki karakuri may<br />
have originated in efforts to teach Buddhism to comm<strong>on</strong>ers, but developed into<br />
a form of popular entertainment. Board games called sugoroku that featured<br />
paradise or buddhahood as a goal <strong>and</strong> hell as a booby trap also had roots in teaching<br />
<strong>and</strong> proselytizing. Perhaps originally developed as an aid to memorizing the<br />
119 See Anoyo no jôkei, pp. 60–75.<br />
120 On Tateyama m<strong>and</strong>ara, see the author’s forthcoming book. Also see note 63 above.<br />
121 See Nei 2005; <strong>and</strong> Nei 2007, pp. 138–40, 397–99, etc.
HIRASAWA: The Inflatable, Collapsible Kingdom 33<br />
Figure 6. Jigoku-e scroll. Courtesy of Zenshôji, Ishikawa prefecture.<br />
Image reproduced from Anoyo no jôkei.
34<br />
M<strong>on</strong>umenta Nipp<strong>on</strong>ica 63:1<br />
stages <strong>on</strong> the way to enlightenment, this infernal game of Snakes <strong>and</strong> Ladders<br />
where salvati<strong>on</strong> was determined by a roll of dice eventually became the model<br />
for various completely secular versi<strong>on</strong>s as well. 122<br />
Numerous illustrated woodblock-printed editi<strong>on</strong>s of Ôjôyôshû circulated, further<br />
adding to the prevalence of hell imagery. While Genshin wrote the original<br />
in kanbun, these popular illustrated editi<strong>on</strong>s (the oldest known of which dates<br />
from 1663) used the kana syllabaries to make the work more accessible (see figure<br />
7). There were also illustrated printed editi<strong>on</strong>s of Jizô jûô kyô. 123 Such printed<br />
imagery drew from the fund of painted ic<strong>on</strong>ography, but the reverse was also<br />
true. A set of ten-king scrolls at Myôchôji in Kawasaki, for example,<br />
shows a man pinned down under his own t<strong>on</strong>gue, over which a dem<strong>on</strong> drives an<br />
ox <strong>and</strong> plough—a c<strong>on</strong>ceit clearly copied from a printed editi<strong>on</strong> of Jizô jûô kyô. 124<br />
The availability of woodblock-printed books <strong>and</strong> rising literacy rates during<br />
the eighteenth <strong>and</strong> nineteenth centuries helped to create fundamentally new<br />
forms of interacting with hell. Widespread private ownership of texts <strong>and</strong> images<br />
enabled ordinary people to gain access to knowledge <strong>on</strong>ce <strong>on</strong>ly available through<br />
exclusive channels—in expensive painted scrolls or h<strong>and</strong>written books—or<br />
through images occasi<strong>on</strong>ally displayed, their recepti<strong>on</strong> often mediated by etoki.<br />
People read books instead of <strong>on</strong>ly listening to selecti<strong>on</strong>s <strong>and</strong> interpretati<strong>on</strong>s,<br />
allowing a more active, individually paced engagement with the material, <strong>and</strong><br />
they procured or borrowed books through bookstores or lending libraries—both<br />
completely secular domains.<br />
Independent access engendered increasingly savvy comm<strong>on</strong>er c<strong>on</strong>sumers of<br />
hell ideology <strong>and</strong> created an envir<strong>on</strong>ment ripe for satire <strong>and</strong> play. These developments<br />
further enriched the meanings <strong>and</strong> uses of hell, which became the grist<br />
for humor in popular theater, literature, games, <strong>and</strong> images.<br />
Parody depends up<strong>on</strong> shared values to be effective. Audiences must be familiar<br />
with the works <strong>and</strong> c<strong>on</strong>venti<strong>on</strong>s referenced, <strong>and</strong> must be competent interpreters<br />
of the complex layers of intended meaning. 125 <strong>Hell</strong>’s wide use in print<br />
122 Kank<strong>on</strong> shiryô (1826), by Ryûtei Tanehiko (1783–1842), menti<strong>on</strong>s, in a<br />
secti<strong>on</strong> positing various possible origins for Jôdo sugoroku, that Kumano bikuni performed etoki<br />
in which women were invited to cast flowers <strong>on</strong> painted h<strong>and</strong>scrolls of hell <strong>and</strong> heaven. Kank<strong>on</strong><br />
shiryô, p. 231. Ogurisu Kenji<br />
analyzed sugoroku in Kumano-related collecti<strong>on</strong>s <strong>and</strong><br />
discovered that the c<strong>on</strong>tent <strong>and</strong> compositi<strong>on</strong> of this type of sugoroku, completely different from<br />
the more popular type, closely resembles Kumano kanjin jikkai m<strong>and</strong>ara. Ogurisu holds that<br />
Kumano-related sugoroku may have preceded Kumano kanjin jikkai m<strong>and</strong>ara <strong>and</strong> that they may<br />
have been used for preaching. The passage in Kank<strong>on</strong> shiryô supports his findings, although by<br />
the time of its writing in 1826 that type of sugoroku may have fallen out of use. See Ogurisu 2007.<br />
123 On illustrated woodblock printed editi<strong>on</strong>s of Ôjôyôshû, see Nishida 2001. On printed editi<strong>on</strong>s<br />
of Jizô jûô kyô, see Hashimoto 1984.<br />
124 See, for example, the reproducti<strong>on</strong> in Enma tôjô, p. 17; Hashimoto 1984, p. 122; <strong>and</strong> Miya<br />
1990, p. 94. Creators of illustrati<strong>on</strong>s for printed books also appropriated other printed images.<br />
Shin sayo arashi , thought to be a reprint of Ihara Saikaku’s (1642–1693) lost<br />
Wankyû nise no m<strong>on</strong>ogatari<br />
, which included images drawn by Saikaku himself,<br />
for instance, c<strong>on</strong>tains motifs borrowed from an illustrated 1689 woodblock editi<strong>on</strong> of Ôjôyôshû.<br />
Noted in Nakajima 2003, pp. 96–123. Also see Wankyû nise no m<strong>on</strong>ogatari.<br />
125 This discussi<strong>on</strong> of parody is informed by the analysis in Hutche<strong>on</strong> 1985.
HIRASAWA: The Inflatable, Collapsible Kingdom 35<br />
Figure 7. E-iri Ôjôyôshû , Genroku 2<br />
(detail). Courtesy of Bukkyô Daigaku . Image<br />
reproduced from Nishida 2001.<br />
culture—whether in earnest or in fun—thus communicates the robustness of the<br />
paradigm well into the modern era, but societal changes simultaneously altered<br />
attitudes toward the Buddhist worldview. Increasingly independent, highly<br />
literate, secular readers scrutinized <strong>on</strong>ce inaccessible medieval sacred texts <strong>and</strong><br />
tenets, sometimes arriving at critical c<strong>on</strong>clusi<strong>on</strong>s. Under the auspices of the<br />
Tokugawa bakufu, moreover, Buddhist instituti<strong>on</strong>s established a more bureaucratic<br />
relati<strong>on</strong>ship with the populace, bringing aspects of sacred <strong>and</strong> secular government<br />
together. Some parodic c<strong>on</strong>flati<strong>on</strong>s of hell <strong>and</strong> the world we inhabit can<br />
be seen as a symptomatic facet of early modern tendencies to secularizati<strong>on</strong>.<br />
Various images took the values <strong>and</strong> lifestyles of our world into the afterlife.<br />
In Oni no shikogusa , an illustrated book from 1778 that relays how
36<br />
M<strong>on</strong>umenta Nipp<strong>on</strong>ica 63:1<br />
Figure 8. Oni no shikogusa. Courtesy of the Nati<strong>on</strong>al Diet Library. Image reproduced<br />
from Kabat 2000.<br />
faith in Zenkôji <strong>and</strong> its ic<strong>on</strong> c<strong>on</strong>veyed every<strong>on</strong>e to paradise, hell suffers<br />
a recessi<strong>on</strong>. With no sinners to stew, hell’s cauldr<strong>on</strong> is covered in cobwebs.<br />
Dem<strong>on</strong>s gamble as Enma tweezes his nose hairs to while away the time (see<br />
figure 8). 126 An early Meiji work, Hima jigoku no zu , similarly depicts<br />
hell’s functi<strong>on</strong>aries with too much time <strong>on</strong> their h<strong>and</strong>s due to the salvati<strong>on</strong><br />
granted by the Buddha. A dem<strong>on</strong> serves coffee to King Enma as he reads the<br />
newspaper, bored dem<strong>on</strong>s take up new professi<strong>on</strong>s, <strong>and</strong> Enma becomes a tea<br />
cerem<strong>on</strong>y instructor. 127 Nichôsai’s (d. 1802?) illustrated scroll Bessekaikan<br />
updates vocati<strong>on</strong>al appeals <strong>and</strong> warnings in hell imagery to corresp<strong>on</strong>d<br />
to professi<strong>on</strong>s <strong>and</strong> predilecti<strong>on</strong>s of the time. 128 Nichôsai nods to<br />
traditi<strong>on</strong>ally brutal representati<strong>on</strong>s of hell, as in his soba noodle-makers’ hell,<br />
where dem<strong>on</strong>s grate, knead, <strong>and</strong> roll out sinners like pasta dough, but <strong>on</strong>e also<br />
finds a tobacco hell, where dem<strong>on</strong>s smoke sinners like pipes (see figure 9), while<br />
in c<strong>and</strong>y-makers’ hell, sinners are twisted like taffy. Elsewhere an artistic dem<strong>on</strong><br />
cuts <strong>and</strong> poses in a flower pot people who enjoyed flower arranging. While famil-<br />
126 See Kabat 2000, pp. 196–97.<br />
127 In the Clark Family Collecti<strong>on</strong>, <strong>on</strong> l<strong>on</strong>g term loan to the Ruth <strong>and</strong> Sherman Lee Institute of<br />
<strong>Japanese</strong> Art, University of California, Merced.<br />
128 See Nakatani 2003.
HIRASAWA: The Inflatable, Collapsible Kingdom 37<br />
Figure 9. Nichôsai, Bessekaikan (detail). Courtesy of Kansai Daigaku .<br />
iarity sometimes served to increase hell’s frightfulness, in these examples similar<br />
exercises become a source of humor. In another instance hell is transformed into<br />
a site for erotic adventures. The ribald Jigoku zôshi emaki<br />
describes<br />
a young couple’s tour through an erotically themed infernal kingdom as ending<br />
with a raigô triad welcoming the pair to paradise, but the three divinities sport<br />
phallic heads. 129<br />
C<strong>on</strong>versely, parody also brought hell’s c<strong>on</strong>venti<strong>on</strong>s into the service of our<br />
world, suggesting that certain professi<strong>on</strong>s or situati<strong>on</strong>s were hellish <strong>and</strong> enabling<br />
people to laugh off their troubles. Illustrated books depicted comical hells for<br />
potatoes—boiled, grated, <strong>and</strong> mashed—<strong>and</strong> compared the tribulati<strong>on</strong>s of courtesans<br />
to particular hells. 130 King Enma’s authority, serious demeanor, <strong>and</strong> instantly<br />
recognizable form made him irresistibly h<strong>and</strong>y for satirizing hypocrites<br />
or petty tyrants, as seen in Hiraga Gennai’s (1728–1779) comic novel<br />
129 Held by the Internati<strong>on</strong>al Research Center for <strong>Japanese</strong> Studies ,<br />
Kyoto. Censorship forced some parodic codes to burrow underground. In Kyôkun sangai zue<br />
, a woodblock print from 1844, Utagawa Sadashige used hell in discreet criticism<br />
of governmental reforms but was ultimately unsuccessful in evading the censors. On this<br />
work <strong>and</strong> others, see Linhart 2004; <strong>and</strong> Minami 1997, pp. 142–45, etc.<br />
130 For potato <strong>and</strong> courtesan hells, see two works by Santô Kyôden (1761–1816):<br />
Ippyaku sanjô imo jigoku <strong>and</strong> Kugai jûnen iro jigoku. On hell in literary works, see, for example,<br />
Ishida 1998, pp. 247–82.
38<br />
M<strong>on</strong>umenta Nipp<strong>on</strong>ica 63:1<br />
Nenashigusa (1763), in which Enma becomes infatuated with a male<br />
kabuki actor immediately after sternly serm<strong>on</strong>izing against homosexuality. 131<br />
One painting shows Enma peering into his magical mirror to spy <strong>on</strong> a beautiful<br />
woman, using his tools for judging others to indulge his own passi<strong>on</strong>s (see color<br />
plate 11).<br />
Expressi<strong>on</strong>s complaining about the ec<strong>on</strong>omic opportunism of those who<br />
preached about hell—“hell is a branch office of heaven” or “even [the verdicts]<br />
of hell depend <strong>on</strong> m<strong>on</strong>ey”—entered the popular lexic<strong>on</strong>, the usage of the latter,<br />
in particular, also reflecting the secular perspective of a thriving commercial culture.<br />
132 The message was no l<strong>on</strong>ger abstracted from the messenger, <strong>and</strong> humorous<br />
comments <strong>on</strong> buying <strong>and</strong> selling salvati<strong>on</strong>—deriving, in part, perhaps, from<br />
a l<strong>on</strong>ging to restore sacrality <strong>and</strong> integrity to Buddhist teachings—surely weakened<br />
the hold that hell had <strong>on</strong> many.<br />
It was not <strong>on</strong>ly parody that brought hell into ever closer proximity with our<br />
world; early modern intellectual <strong>and</strong> historical developments also deemphasized<br />
mysterious imaginati<strong>on</strong>s of the other world. Acerbically commenting <strong>on</strong> the<br />
rapid Westernizati<strong>on</strong> of the country after the Meiji Restorati<strong>on</strong>, 133 Kawanabe<br />
Kyôsai (1831–1889) depicted Enma getting a haircut <strong>and</strong> a new suit (see<br />
color plate 12). In retrospect, the image seems prescient. Enma, a f<strong>on</strong>d, pathetically<br />
bewildered old man, appears uncomfortable with the changes occurring<br />
everywhere around him. Since the Meiji period, al<strong>on</strong>g with the introducti<strong>on</strong> of<br />
alternate worldviews, many traditi<strong>on</strong>al socioreligious practices have steadily<br />
declined in Japan. 134 Perhaps in the tensi<strong>on</strong>s of this late parody from the dawn<br />
of Japan’s modern era we can see intimati<strong>on</strong>s that, even as the threat of hell c<strong>on</strong>tinued<br />
to be directed at every<strong>on</strong>e <strong>and</strong> was no doubt taken seriously by large porti<strong>on</strong>s<br />
of the populati<strong>on</strong>, the nature <strong>and</strong> purpose of sundering hell were changing.<br />
Located at the crossroads of high <strong>and</strong> low culture, hell was built up of philosophy,<br />
guilt, fear, opportunism, compassi<strong>on</strong>, <strong>and</strong> ethical impulses. Depicti<strong>on</strong>s of<br />
hell were employed at all levels <strong>and</strong> for a multitude of purposes. With so many<br />
agendas colliding <strong>on</strong> hell’s c<strong>on</strong>structi<strong>on</strong>, no w<strong>on</strong>der fissures appeared in its ramparts<br />
<strong>and</strong> parody entered. Raucous send-ups overturned the hierarchies of<br />
preacher <strong>and</strong> parishi<strong>on</strong>er, paradise <strong>and</strong> hell, or judge <strong>and</strong> judged. Jubilant ridicule<br />
of manipulative, mercenary propag<strong>and</strong>a questi<strong>on</strong>ed <strong>and</strong> complicated its meanings,<br />
enabling ephemeral liberati<strong>on</strong> from fear of death <strong>and</strong> hell, <strong>and</strong> defeat of<br />
earthly powers. 135 Overcoming fear of mortality <strong>and</strong> shattering c<strong>on</strong>cepti<strong>on</strong>s of<br />
131 Nenashigusa, pp. 42–53. On the political <strong>and</strong> social implicati<strong>on</strong>s of parodic prints of hell, <strong>and</strong><br />
for an image of Enma forced to face his sins in his own mirror, see Linhart 2004.<br />
132 See Kagomimi (1687), pp. 251–52; Sesshû gappô ga tsuji (1773), pp. 696–97, etc.<br />
133 Linhart 2004, pp. 355–60.<br />
134 Indeed, this trend began l<strong>on</strong>g before Meiji—in Shutsujô gogo (kôgo) (1745), for<br />
example, Tominaga Nakamoto (1715–1746) discredited Buddhism for its textual inc<strong>on</strong>sistencies.<br />
One of Tominaga’s arguments hinged <strong>on</strong> divergent, c<strong>on</strong>tradictory descripti<strong>on</strong>s of the<br />
universe, including those of hell. See Ketelaar 1993, pp. 20–28; Shutsujô gogo, pp. 26; <strong>and</strong> Pye<br />
1990, p. 89.<br />
135 Paraphrasing Bakhtin 1965, pp. 90–92, 123.
HIRASAWA: The Inflatable, Collapsible Kingdom 39<br />
the world were also, however, objectives faithful to the spirit <strong>and</strong> intent of many<br />
orthodox teachings about hell. Popular parody not <strong>on</strong>ly served new agendas, but<br />
trounced hell with a mastery that paralleled more cerebral or expensive elite<br />
methods.<br />
<strong>Japanese</strong> hell painting ranges from exquisitely drawn flames curled around<br />
elegantly brushed torture victims to cheap, poorly painted imitati<strong>on</strong>s <strong>and</strong> massproduced<br />
woodblock prints. While the multiplicati<strong>on</strong> of lesser-quality or printed<br />
imagery may have in time overwhelmed sober, skillful paintings of hell, <strong>and</strong><br />
while c<strong>on</strong>cepti<strong>on</strong>s of hell endured repeated sundering <strong>and</strong> lampo<strong>on</strong>ing, hell’s<br />
utility suffered no such indignities. The entire kingdom could be c<strong>on</strong>jured from<br />
the crudest sketch or delusi<strong>on</strong>, <strong>and</strong> hell’s dec<strong>on</strong>structi<strong>on</strong> was built into its very<br />
architecture. As overcoming hell shifted from escape to transcendent reinterpretati<strong>on</strong>,<br />
c<strong>on</strong>flati<strong>on</strong> with this world, merriment, <strong>and</strong> rati<strong>on</strong>al dismissal, hell was<br />
increasingly demystified—but it was <strong>on</strong>ly truly vanquished by those who ab<strong>and</strong><strong>on</strong>ed<br />
the complex paradigm altogether.<br />
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