Ten Judgements of Hell: Musicians in the Afterlife

In the upper right, a pavilion framed by red pillars houses six figures playing various instruments, including a circular drum and wind instruments, dressed in colorful robes. Below them, three standing officials in formal red and green robes observe the scene. In the foreground, a single figure, stripped to the waist and wearing only red trousers, appears to be escorted toward the pavilion, their expression weary or submissive. The scene is rendered in a flat, linear style with muted earth tones, typical of traditional Korean Buddhist paintings depicting the bureaucracy of the ten underworld courts.

This painting belongs to the 'Ten Kings of Hell' (Sipwang) genre, common in Korean Buddhist painting of the Joseon period, which depicts the trial and punishment of souls. These scenes are used in rituals for the dead to guide the deceased through the underworld bureaucracy, largely based on the apocryphal 'Sutra of the Ten Kings'.