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Meiji-era vision of Hell is not at all frightening, actually kind of cute

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Depicting the horrors of hell through art is a tradition in Buddhism that goes back at least 1,000 years in Japan. By depicting the suffering in store for sinners, the artworks were supposed to scare people onto the straight and narrow.

But if that’s what this late 19th century scroll was for, it might have had the opposite effect. We’ve never seen such a cute hellscape!

This particular scroll is part of Waseda University’s collection and is a copy by an artist called Kanshou of an unknown earlier hell scroll. His style is simple and kind of spindly, making the humans and devils look cartoonish. The combination of that doodling style and the sometimes nonsensical situations makes for a very cute package, in our opinion.

Check out these highlights.

▼The hell where you are only allowed to air swim, like this pug

▼ The hell where you can only communicate through interpretive dance

▼ The hell where you pretend to be Totoro and join Cirque du Soleil

▼ The hell where you get weighed and a devil tells you you’re fat

▼The hell where a balding stranger invades your personal space and then you get poked with a stick

▼The hell where you have to play horsey with really ugly kids

▼The hell where you have to pretend to be a fan of kamishibai

▼The hell where you stick your head in a giant croissant

▼The hell where you are given unwanted spa treatments

▼The hell where you have to offer room service towels to a very grumpy guest

▼The hell where you get hot tea up your nose

Not exactly wailing and gnashing of teeth, right?

That last one did have an effect on me though. I could really go for a cup of tea now…

H/T Japaaan Magazine
Images: Waseda

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