Jigoku
Jigoku, written in Japanese as 地獄, is the term for hell or the underworld in Japanese religion, folklore, and culture. It denotes the realm of punishment after death for those who have committed serious wrongdoing, and it is often imagined as a system of multiple sub-hells rather than a single place. In Buddhist cosmology, Jigoku corresponds to Naraka, a group of realms where beings experience torment according to the severity of their karma.
The concept of Jigoku varies by tradition but commonly features environments of intense heat, monstrous beings,
Jigoku has a prominent place in Japanese art and literature. The Jigoku-zōshi, or “hell scrolls,” are a
In modern popular culture, Jigoku appears in film, novels, and games. A notable example is the 1960