These three paintings depict the fifth king (King Yama), the eighth king, and the tenth king of the “Ten Kings of Hell.” Originally part of a set of ten paintings, only nine of the works remain today, and they are scattered across different locations. These paintings vividly portray the ten kings delivering harsh judgments and brutal punishments to the souls of the deceased.
In one painting, as King Yama observes, a warden pulls a man’s hair and forces him to watch scenes depicting his sins and transgressions. In another, a large scale is placed before the eighth king, symbolizing a judgment process that weighs the deceased’s misdeeds against their moral actions. Finally, the tenth and final king assigns souls to various reincarnations—as animals, ordinary men and women, or monks—in keeping with his title, which means “king who turns the wheel of the five paths of rebirth.”
These paintings follow the typical composition of Ten Kings of Hell paintings created in the Ningbo region during the Southern Song Dynasty. However, their spatial design, which omits detailed backgrounds, and their softer color palette set them apart from Chinese examples. Particularly noteworthy is the use of gold outlines and patterns, a distinctive feature of Goryeo Buddhist paintings.