gaki 餓鬼

Hungry ghosts. One of the types within the group *rokudō-e 六道絵 (paintings of the six realms) which were popular in the late Heian period. This shows people who fail to follow the Buddhist way of life as wretched in the afterlife, feeding on dead bodies and excrement. This perhaps reflects the social unease of the period which saw the collapse of the Fujiwara 藤原 supremacy which in itself resulted in the Taira-Minamoto war, Genpei kassen 源平合戦. There are only two extant examples, one picture scroll in Tokyo National Museum which shows the desperation of the ghosts and the other scroll, which is kept in the Kyoto National Museum, shows their redemption at the hands of *Amida 阿弥陀.