Narrative paintings, reliefs, or group sculptures of Buddhist stories (sutras or legends), which were made in great quantities to be used for the propagation of Buddhism. Roughly classified into six groups:
1 Pali; jataka, stories of the ascetic exercises or merciful deeds that the Buddha accomplished as a Bodhisattava in his former life *honjō-zu 本生図.
2 Legendary biographies of the Buddha, which describe his birth into this life, his youth as a prince, his becoming a priest, his attaining enlightenment, his preaching, and his death *butsuden-zu 仏伝図.
3 Sanskrit, Avadana stories of former and present lives of the Buddha's disciples and followers. See *hiyu setsuwa-zu 譬喩説話図. No examples of this group, however, are found in mainland China or Japan. The stories of these three groups are based mainly on Mahayana sutras and the term bukkyō setsuwa sometimes refers only to these.
4 Narrative stories based on Mahayana sutras, often called *hensō 変相, hensō-zu 変相図 or kyōhen 経変, which were developed and refined in Central Asia. They seem to have reached their apogee during the 7th-10th century, as far as Dunhuang (Jp: Tonkō 敦煌) examples are concerned. The most widely found examples of this group in Japan are *Taima mandara 当麻曼荼羅, the Japanese name for *Kangyō hensō 観経変相, and *raigō-zu 来迎図. Jigoku-e 地獄絵 (also known as jigokuhen 地獄変), the visualization of the forged sutras referring to Hell, is also included in this group.
5 Biographies, often legendary, of Buddhist monks as holy men, which were developed probably in China and became popular in Japan (see *kōsōden-e 高僧伝絵). Many of these were made to commemorate great deeds of the founders of the new Buddhist sects of the Kamakura period.
6 Paintings of the origin and benevolent revelation to temples and shrines *shaji engi-e 社寺縁起絵, which were made in order to enhance the prestige of their sect and to propagate their doctrine. They were developed and flourished especially in Japan, mostly in the form of handscrolls and hanging scrolls.