I am not quite sure on where to start within this essay i was looking for a bit of input and clarification on the topic and what is need in general….

I am not quite sure on where to start within this essay i was looking for a bit of input and clarification on the topic and what is need in general. this is what shes asked.

Explore the religious beliefs behind depictions of ghosts in Japanese painting or in Japanese film. You might compare the hungry ghost motif (often seen in Buddhist art, handscrolls or paintings) to the yurei (restless spirits who died violently or tragically) or the onryō (vengeful women ghosts, usually manifested in physical form, often featured in Japanese samurai movies or horror films). The realm of hungry ghosts, is one of the six realms where the greedy are reborn as pot-bellied, narrow-throated creatures, who suffer insatiable hunger and unquenchable thirst. Their fate results from excessive attachment to desire and to worldly things in earthly lives. These scary images served to warn the people about what death might have in store if they did not fully embrace the Four Noble Truths. Explore the meaning and messages in these artworks, referring to the Buddhist cosmology of the Wheel of Life and the six realms of birth, or rokudō, which comprise the samsara cycle of reincarnation.

(You may refer to the handscroll paintings of hungry ghosts in the Tokyo National Museum, or to the Realm of Hungry Ghosts (from “The Six Realms of Rebirth” School of Hirotaka, Japan Edo period, 1800 CE – 1900 CE) in the British Museum. For Japanese films featuring ghosts, I recommend Kwaidan (1964), or Ringu (1998). Also, see the Japanese samurai films of Akira Kurosawa.)

Recommended Sources

“The Six Realms.” In Highlights. The British Museum Web site http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights.aspx.

Fisher, Robert E. Buddhist Art and Architecture. London: Thames & Hudson, 1993.

Kanda, Fusae. “Beyond the Sensationalism: Images of a Decaying Corpse in Japanese Buddhist Art.” The Art Bulletin 87.1 (March, 2005): 24-49.

Pilgrim, Richard B. Buddhism and the Arts of Japan. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.

Tokyo National Museum Web site. www.tnm.go.jp/en/index.html.

filmstudiesforfree.blogspot.com/2010/07/on-japanese-cinema.html‎

Douglas E. Cowan Sacred Terror: Religion and Horror on the Silver Screen. Baylor University Press, 2008.

Paul Williams and
Patrice Ladwig (Eds.) Buddhist Funeral Cultures of Southeast Asia and China. Cambridge, 2012.

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