Torture Demons: Japanese Hell Paintings

The Jigoku-zoshi (“Hell Scrollsâ€) and similar documents from the 12th century onwards are amongst the earliest, and bloodiest, accounts of human carnage in Japanese art. Victims are burned, drowned in blood and excrement, crushed by fiery rocks, flayed, eaten alive by beasts, and have their bones pulverised by vicious, club-wielding oni (horned, clawed, fanged demons who may have multiple eyes and blue or red skin). This is the Buddhist concept of purgatory, where sinners have eight “g...