King of Hell Korea, Koryo period, late 1200s-mid 1300s ink and color on silk, 24 3/4 x 17 3/4 inches (61.2 x 45 cm) Gift of Mr and Mrs John B. Bunker 1982.104

This painting shows the Ninth King of Hell (Tosiwang or King of the Capital) presiding over the gruesome torturing of a sinner. It was one in a set of the Ten Kings of Hell now dispersed to museums and private collections. Such frightening representations of the Ten Kings of Hell would have been prominently displayed in temples to remind the Buddhist devout of the horrors of hell and the unrelenting punishment of sinners. This cult of the underworld developed in China during the Five Dynasties (907-960), a time of great destruction and suffering, and was introduced over the following four centuries to both Korea and Japan.


To Korea