These scrolls are part of a set of ten illustrating the Ten Kings of Hell. The theme transforms the Indian Buddhist view of judgment after death into a Chinese bureaucratic process. Before being permitted to transmigrate into the next life, a soul faces trial by a different king each week for seven weeks; it is sent to the eighth king on the hundredth day, to the ninth after a year, and to the tenth the third year after death. Each scroll shows a king—assisted by a scribe and other officials—examining and passing sentence on the souls of the dead. The foregrounds of each painting describe the types of punishments that might be expected in these treacherous realms. At left, a demon pushes a cart aflame, crushing helpless sinners. Elsewhere, demons chop at a man’s bloody knee. In the right scroll, ghouls force one man to peer into a mirror and relive his past sins, while others are chased by demons wielding swords. Many Buddhist paintings were created by professional artists working in Ningbo in China’s Zhejiang Province, an important port city for merchants and pilgrims traveling from Japan, where many such works are still preserved.

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