Illustrated Legends of the Kitano Shrine (Kitano Tenjin Engi) (detail). Kamakura period (1185–1333), 13th century. Japan. Handscroll; ink and color on paper; 11 3/4 x 28 ft. 3 3/4 in. (29.8 x 863 cm). Fletcher Fund, 1925 (25.224c).
The legend now shifts to the itinerant monk Nichizo, who is shown wearing the garments of a wandering mountain ascetic. This priest was one of the figures in tenth-century Kyoto who explained the natural disasters afflicting the city and its inhabitants as manifestations of the wrath of Michizane. Nichizo was said to have received this information after he returned from the dead. The story of his afterdeath experiences is dramatized here as a fantastic, Dante-esque journey through hell. Nichizo is shown seated in the cave where he reportedly died. On the right he receives a visit from another traveling priest, while on the left the large dragon, that was thought to have caused his death, approaches.
