Segment of the Hell Scroll: Hell of Shrieking Sounds

ca. 1200

This segment is a part of a longer handscroll that visualizes the various hells described in the Butsumyokyo sutra (Sutra on Buddhas’ Names). The calligraphy on the right describes one of these called the Shrieking Sound Hell. The image on the left illustrates the horrific scene. Two horse-headed demons are chasing naked monks who committed sins, such as beating and torturing beasts. The monks scream as fierce flames engulf them.

Handscroll; ink and color on paper

10 3/8 x 25 3/4in. (26.4 x 65.4cm)

Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection

48.172

Photo: Susan A. Cole

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistoryNew York, New York, Grolier Club of New York, Japanese Book Illustration, 1957.

Pomona, California, Los Angeles County Fair, One World of Art, 1951.

San Francisco, California, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, Treasures of Japan, 1960.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Japanese Art in the Seattle Art Museum, 1960.

New York, New York, Asia House Gallery, Masterpieces of Japanese Buddhist Painting From Western Collections, Oct. 11 - Dec.9, 1979 (Denver, Colorado, Denver Art Museum, Mar. 27 - May 11, 1980).

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, A Thousand Cranes: Treasures Of Japanese Art, Feb. 5 - July 12, 1987.

Kyoto, Japan, Kyoto National Museum, The Art of the Court, Apr. 12 - May 15, 1994.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Masterpieces of Japanese Art from the Collection of the Seattle Art Museum, Nov. 1, 1998 - Mar. 1, 1999.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Flights of Fancy: Natural and Supernatural Images In Japanese Art, Dec. 9, 1998 - Aug. 1, 1999

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, A Thousand Years of Beauty: Japanese Art in Seattle, July 16, 2001 - Nov. 17, 2002.

Tokyo, Japan, Suntory Museum of Art, Luminous Jewels: Masterpieces of Asian Art From the Seattle Art Museum, July 25 - Sept. 6, 2009 (Kobe, Japan, Kobe City Museum, Sept. 19 - Dec. 6, 2009; Kofu, Japan, Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art, Dec. 23, 2009 - Feb. 28, 2010; Atami, Japan, MOA Museum of Art, Mar. 13 - May 9, 2010; Fukuoka, Japan, Fukuoka Art Museum, May 23 - July 19, 2010).

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Boundless: Stories of Asian Art, Feb. 8, 2020 - ongoing [on view Feb. 8, 2020 - July 11, 2021].

Published ReferencesLee, Sherman. "Seven Early Japanese Paintings," in Art Quarterly, Autumn 1949, pp. 309-324, discussed pp. 310, 314-315, illus. p. 312

"Handbook, Seattle Art Museum: Selected Works from the Permanent Collections." Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 1951, p. 88 (b&w)

Fuller, Richard E. "Japanese Art in the Seattle Art Museum: An Historical Sketch." Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 1960 ("Presented in commemoration of the Hundredth Anniversary of Diplomatic Relations between Japan and the United States of America"), no. 55

Thomas, Edward B. "Oriental Art in the Seattle Art Museum," in Art in America, no. 1, 1965, illus. p. 50

"Selected Works." Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 1991, p. 188

Kawai, Masatomo, Yasuhiro Nishioka, Yukiko Sirahara, editors, "Luminous Jewels: Masterpieces of Asian Art From the Seattle Art Museum", 2009, The Yomiuri Shimbun, catalogue number 25

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