Ten Judgements of Hell: Fifth Court of King Yama

The painting depicts a bureaucratic scene of Buddhist judgment. At the top left, a judge in a red robe sits with an official in blue, while nearby, a figure in green carries a document. Below them, a kneeling petitioner hands a tablet to a standing attendant. On the right, figures in red and pink robes gestures with fans and documents, while near the bottom, bare-chested sinners are seen in a state of suffering, some surrounded by wooden stocks or undergoing physical examination. The composition uses traditional East Asian architectural markers—red pillars and tiled roofs—to frame the purgatorial space.

This painting represents one of the Ten Kings of Hell, a central concept in East Asian Buddhism derived from the 'Sutra of the Ten Kings' (Shiwang jing), which details the bureaucratic process of judgment for souls in the afterlife.