Jin Chushi

Jin Chushi is an artist known primarily through a select group of documented paintings active around the year 1167. Specific biographical details, including birth and death dates or nationality, remain unrecorded; the artist’s reputation rests entirely on the verifiable works preserved in institutional collections.

The five extant works attributed to Jin Chushi are paintings focused intensely on a single thematic subject: the Ten Kings of Hell. This subject, central to East Asian Buddhist cosmology, depicts the formidable bureaucratic structure of the underworld and its judges. The preservation of five distinct pieces under the same title suggests the creation of a significant sequential series or a specialized focus on this iconography.

These highly important Jin Chushi paintings are currently held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, establishing their credibility and historical significance. These works represent the documented artistic output of Jin Chushi preserved within museum collections. Because of their status within major institutions, the five documented paintings are frequently available as high-quality prints and as downloadable artwork for scholars and the public.