The two scrolls that illustrate the Seven Misfortunes show disastrous events inflicted on man and mankind by nature and by humans. They were commissioned in 1768 by the Emmann Temple outside of Kyoto to explain the Buddhist Karma beliefs. Okyo painted realistic scenes for every "misfortune" or "evil" of the Buddhist philosophy - Earthquake, flood, fire, onis, war, robbery, and sickness (Joly 378). Maruyama Okyo was a master of realism, a technique adopted from outside influences (especially the Dutch), which became popular during the Edo period. The realistic qualities conveyed in Okyo's images of the Seven Misfortunes are moving and frightening.

7. Mason, Penelope. History of Japanese Art. New York: Prentice Hall Inc., 1993

Okyo's ability to combine Western influences of realism and his own personal style into The Seven Misfortunes made his work stand out against the rest of the art being produced in Japan during that time period. The use of realism in the rendering of the scrolls was necessary for the nature of their purpose; for Buddhism is based on simplicity, and the Emmanin temple that commissioned these works wanted something to display to their Buddhist followers that would demonstrate the results of Karma and how it relates to real life. The scrolls are "...remarkable for their truthful power; for them Okyo apparently drew the human figure from life." (Japanese Painting). The Seven Fortunes and the Seven Misfortunes are just one example of the artist's objective style of Japanese painting. All of Okyo's works are examples in realism created from the Maruyama-Shijo school that he founded.

9. Tazawa, Yutaka. Biographical Dictionary of Japanese Art. New York: Kondanska International Ltd., 1981

There he made a place for himself among the chonin, which was the artesian and merchant classes that formed the main urban population in the Edo period. He started out as an apprentice to a clothing shop and then a toy maker, for whom he painted dolls (Maruyama Okyo). He eventually undertook formal training as a painter, since he showed a talent for art. Okyo's teacher, Ishida Yutei was a painter in the style of the Kano School, which used touches of realism. He inherited his teacher's interest in diverse painting styles, and in his late teens Okyo also studied Dutch prints, learning the principles of linear perspective and modeling the human form (Maruyama Okyo). The Dutch influence of perspective is not very apparent in The Seven Misfortunes, but in Okyo's other works he implements this modern technique.

3. "Japanese Painting." The Dictionary of Art. 1996 ed.

Maruyama Okyo (1733-1795), was the son of a farmer who left the farm and moved to Kyoto.

scrolls shows with vivid detail the demise of an unfortunate man. This man is naked, with a fierce bull on either side of him. The man's legs have been tied to one hind leg of each bull, and their tails have been set on fire. We can imagine the bulls bucking wildly as the man's fragile body is torn apart from the great force of the furious bulls. Blood spurts from the torn cavity of the man's chest as he screams in terro

Some common words found in the essay are:
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