Exhibit review: Jigoku Wonderland: Buddhist Hell Scenes, Tokyo, Japan

Jigoku Wonderland:  Buddhist Hell Scenes
Mitsui Memorial Museum

Opening day was not as crowded as expected.  Not crowded at all, in fact.  Mutsumi said it was because this was a B-grade exhibit, not something likely to draw hordes of fashionistas.  The building was perhaps more impressive than the exhibit, an early 20th century construction that has been designated an Important Cultural Property.  The exhibit featured approximately 100 pieces ranging from the 13th century to the present, all connected to the theme of hell as conceived in Japanese Buddhism.  A few texts were on display, but most items were paintings, drawings, or sculpture.  As with the work collected in the exhibit of the Belgian Fantastic, many of the paintings and drawings demanded close inspection to appreciate the detail filling out the corners of the canvas or paper.  Common themes included the depiction of Emmao and the ten judges of hell, the corresponding ten levels of hell, and the various tortures perpetrated by the guardian monsters against their human victims, which consisted in the main of burning, boiling, dismembering, and impaling.  Altogether this was a well conceived and interesting collection of art.  It might have been improved by a suitably gruesome soundtrack of roaring flames, sawing bones, banging metal, dripping blood, breaking bones, screams and moans.  Museum management needs to rethink customer relations.  We were told off by a guard for using our mobile device within the exhibit.  We were not photographing or talking on the phone, just searching maps for our next destination.

A selection of small images of some of the exhibit items is available on the museum's Japanese language website:  http://www.mitsui-museum.jp/exhibition/index.html

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