Hell Screen

芥川龍之介

Yoshihide is hailed as the finest painter in the land - arrogant, friendless, beloved by no one. The one thing he treasures above his own life is his daughter. Commanded by the Great Lord to paint a folding screen of Hell, he is bound by his own curse: he can paint only what he has seen. To render torment he binds his apprentices and hangs them in chains. And at last he comes before the Lord with a request - that he be shown a carriage burning before his eyes. When he sees what appears inside the flames, what does the painter cry out, and what does he paint? Art and madness, fatherhood and karma: the blazing hell-scroll that stands at the summit of Akutagawa's work.