Jigoku, in Japanese Buddhism, hell, a region popularly believed to be composed of a number of hot and cold regions located under the Earth. Jigoku is ruled over by Emma-ō, the Japanese lord of death, who judges the dead by consulting a register in which are entered all of their sins. He is assisted in his examination of the dead by two disembodied heads, which rest on pillars on either side of him. The female head, Miru-me, has the power of perceiving the sinner’s most secret faults, while the male head, Kagu-hana, can detect any misdeed. Damnation is not eternal; the dead are sentenced to fixed periods of time in one region or to several regions in succession. The sentences can be shortened by the intervention of bodhisattvas (those destined to become enlightened) in response to the prayers of the living.
The Jigoku-zōshi, a late 12th-century scroll, depicts the 8 great hells and the 16 lesser hells in both text and paintings.