painting;
繪畫(Chinese);
handscroll
- Museum number
- 1919,0101,0.80
- Description
-
Painted handscroll illustrating the apochryphal Ten Kings of Hell Sutra. Five Kings seated behind their desks, with various punishments shown. The Six Ways of Life and a Hell scene follow, and the standing figure of Kṣitigarbha completes the composition. Ink and colour on paper. Ivory knobs.
- Production date
- 10thC
- Dimensions
-
Height: 27.80 centimetres
-
Width: 2.40 metres (length)
- Curator's comments
- Zwalf 1985
The Dunhuang handscrolls showing the Ten Kings of the Underworld appear late in the iconography of the Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha. In this fragment five kings are each seated behind a table, attended by the recorders of a person's good and evil deeds and by lictors and gaolers driving the souls before the court. Some souls wear wooden cangues and hand fetters; all have only a loincloth. The virtuous are in 10th-century costume; the men hold bundles of scrolls, the women small Buddha images in token of their meritorious deeds. Kṣitigarbha, dressed as a monk, appears at the end of the scroll, rescuing souls from hell.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2003 18 Oct-14 Dec, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Treasures of the World's Cultures
2004 17 Jan-28 Mar, Kobe City Museum, Treasures of the World's Cultures
2004 10 Apr-13 Jun, Fukuoka Art Museum, Treasures of the World's Cultures
2004 26 Jun-29 Aug, Niigata Bandaijima Art Museum, Treasures of the World's Cultures
2007 8 Feb-5 Aug, BM Gallery 91, 'Gods, Guardians and Immortals: Chinese Religious Paintings'
2018-2019 4 Dec-3 Mar, Seoul, National Museum of Korea, Goryeo Dynasty
- Associated titles
Associated Title: Shiwang shengqi jing (Sutra of theTen Kings)
- Acquisition date
- 1919
- Acquisition notes
- For full acquisition history, see 1919,0101,0.1.
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1919,0101,0.80
- Additional IDs
-
Miscellaneous number: Ch.cii.001 (Stein no.80)
