Artworks

The Six Realms of Existence (Shōju Raigōji)

Artwork · Anonymous · 13th century · kakemono · Shōjuraigō-ji Temple

One of fifteen hanging scrolls illustrating Genshin’s Essentials of Salvation (Ōjō yōshū), with excerpts in small rectangles at the top — rokudō-e. The impurity of the human realm is shown in a woman’s body: newly laid out on a straw mat, then swollen, then decaying under a maple, and at last picked by birds and animals. Yamato-e in flavour; other scrolls are in a Chinese ink style. Dated to the thirteenth century from their styles and repairs, the first in 1313. 1 Mason 2005, p. 210, fig. 243. ↩ Literatur Mason 2005: Penelope E. Mason, History of Japanese Art, 2nd, Pearson Education LTD. 2005.