Many artists over the centuries have depicted hell in various ways, although most of them often involved fire, brimstone, people wailing, and what looked like demons or ghouls. Japanese artists have also been very creative in the way they illustrated hell or “jigoku”. In fact, from the 12th to the 19th century, there have been many depictions of hell from Japanese artists. And a book has been published collating all of them in 600 pages.
Listen beautiful relax classics on our Youtube channel.
There’s the classic one shown above from the Jigoku-Zoshi, or hell scroll, showing flames coming out like tendrils from the ground with people trapped inside and big ogres with clubs making sure they don’t get out.
Another picture shows a large monster with a horse’s head and a human body holding a spear, apparently directing a toppling group of people from the inner gate of hell toward a deeper region.
Perhaps the weirdest one shows a demon flattening a human with a stick to make them into soba noodles.
For more concepts of hell, check them out at Spoon and Tamago. The book is called Hell in Japanese Art which features art by Yoshitoshi Tsukioka, Kyosai Kawanabe, Kazunobu Kano, and more, available on Amazon.
(Image credit: Tokyo National Museum)
Source: neatorama