rokudō-e 六道絵

Also occasionally read rikudō-e. Lit. "six paths."
Paintings of the six paths rokudō 六道 of existence are also called the six realms rokushu 六趣 of reincarnation. According to Buddhist thought, all living beings are caught in an endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth into one of the six realms being re-born up or down the scale according to the extent or lack of one's purity and good deeds in the previous existence. One can escape only by achieving enlightenment.
Described in numerous texts including the Hokekyō 法華経 (Lotus Sutra), the six realms are: hells jigoku 地獄 (Sk: naraka), hungry ghosts *gaki 餓鬼 (Sk: preta), animals chikushō 畜生 (Sk: tiryasyoni), bellicose demons *Ashura 阿修羅 (Sk: Asura), humans jin 人 (Sk: manusya), and heavenly beings *ten 天 (Sk: deva).
Buddhists provide four additional realms for enlightened beings: sravaka arhats shōmon 声聞, pratyeka buddhas engaku 縁覚, bodhisattvas *bosatsu 菩薩, and Buddhas hotoke 仏. These can be combined with the six realms to form the ten worlds which are also depicted in painting (see *jikkai-zu 十界図). The concept of reincarnation in realms originated with Indian ideas of the five realms goshu 五趣 (Sk: gati), which excluded Ashura.
Early Indian depictions of the five realms are found at Ajanta such as cave #17 (late 5th century). Illustrations of the six realms from the 8th-9th century survive in China at Dunhuang (Jp: Tonkō 敦煌).
The earliest Japanese depictions consist of hell scenes that are found in Nara period (8th century) paintings related to *Kannon 観音, such as the hairline engraving *kebori 毛彫 on the halo *kōhai 光背 (Nara National Museum) of the principal image *Jūichimen Kannon 十一面観音 of *Nigatsudō 二月堂 in Tōdaiji 東大寺. From the 9th-10th century, Pure Land jōdo 浄土 theologians vividly write of the torments of the six realms so as to make salvation by *Amida 阿弥陀 Buddha and the rewards of his paradise all the more desirable. Screens showing hell scenes were used in a ceremony called butsumyō-e 仏名会 at the Imperial Palace. The Ōjō yōshū 往生要集 (Essentials of Salvation), written by Genshin 源信 (942-1017) in 985, became very popular among Fujiwara nobles and greatly influenced the creation of pictures of the six realms. A set of fifteen hanging scrolls at Shōjuraigōji 聖衆来迎寺 (13th century) in Shiga Prefecture, visualizes Genshin's description of the rokudō, devoting four scrolls each for the realms of humans and hells. In the turbulent dislocations of the late 12th century, religious patrons and artists seemed particularly interested in visualizations of the realms of hells and hungry ghosts. The Jigoku zōshi 地獄草紙 (Hell Scrolls, 1180's, Tokyo National Museum and Nara National Museum) and Gaki zōshi 餓鬼草紙 (Hungry Ghost Scroll, 1180's, Kyoto National Museum) are well known, and sometimes the term rokudō-e in the narrowest sense of the term indicates these handscrolls *emaki 絵巻. From the Kamakura period *Jizō 地蔵 often took the place of Amida, to act as savior from the six realms, and depictions of rescue from hells are often found in the scrolls of stories related to Jizō.