Visualizing Hungry Ghosts in Heian Japan: Gakizōshi Scrolls as "Translation"

Paintings from two examples of Gakizōshi (Hungry Ghost Scrolls) are known to illustrate passages from the sutra Zhengfa nianchu jing. Scholars have studied some of these scenes as illustrations of parts of the sutra or as pictorial sources for everyday life in Heian Japan. However, little has been said about how certain scenes in the scrolls place the sutra's hungry ghosts in the human world and into a uniquely Heian environment. This article attempts, using these scenes as a focal point, to analyze the Gakizōshi scrolls as a form of "translation" functioning to transpose the sutra into a different medium, language, and cultural setting. By unraveling the complexities that accompany the process of translation, the article aims to offer a better understanding of how the hungry ghosts of Zhengfa nianchu jing were envisioned in early medieval Japan.