일본의 지옥도(地獄圖) 일고찰

Abstract

This study examines the formation, systematization, and visual articulation of Japanese conceptions of hell through an analysis of medieval Jigoku zōshi (地獄草紙, Hell Scrolls) and Gaki zōshi (餓鬼草紙, Hungry Ghost Scrolls). Although notions of hell occupied a marginal position in early Japanese Buddhism, the emergence of narrative representations of karmic retribution in the Nihon ryōiki (『日本靈異記』) and the systematic visualization of the Eight Hot Hells and their subsidiary realms in Genshin′s Ōjōyōshū (『往生要集』) established a concrete doctrinal and iconographic framework for imagining postmortem judgment. This consolidation of hell imagery was closely intertwined with the spread of mappō thought and the social turmoil of the late Heian period, which intensified popular anxieties concerning sin, death, and the afterlife. Within this milieu, pictorial representations of hell and hungry ghosts functioned as persuasive didactic devices, conveying moral admonition and soteriological guidance. The present study offers a comprehensive analysis of the iconography of selected Jigoku zōshi—including the Harake, Anjūin, and Masuda family versions— as well as Gaki zōshi such as the Kawamoto and Sōgenji manuscripts. The Jigoku zōshi depict the torments of the Eight Hot Hells with stark realism, heightening the fear of karmic retribution and framing hell not as a distant otherworld but as an immediate moral warning for conduct in this life. Notably, the Masuda version′s depiction of Buddhist monks in the “Hell of Priests” articulates an internal critique of clerical corruption and reflects a call for moral reform within the religious community. In contrast, the Gaki zōshi visualize everyday desires—such as gluttony, lust, and bodily impurity—through the grotesque suffering of hungry ghosts, producing a more immediate and visceral mode of moral persuasion. While the Kawamoto version emphasizes an endless cycle of suffering devoid of redemption, the Sōgenji version incorporates the Moggallāna–Ānanda narrative to construct a visualized drama of salvation. This study argues that Japanese representations of hell and hungry ghosts operated within a continuous process linking doctrine, visualization, literary adaptation, and social dissemination. Far from serving merely as religious illustrations, these works actively shaped the existential concerns, moral sensibilities, and salvific aspirations of medieval Japanese society. By offering a holistic examination of the overall structure and iconography of Jigoku zōshi and Gaki zōshi, this research supplements earlier scholarship—often limited to isolated images or textual receptions—and provides a foundation for further interdisciplinary inquiry into Japanese notions of hell.