Datsue-ba

[1] In "Renshū hōshi", one of the 129 tales within the Hokke genki, a Datsueba-like figure sits by the side of a river beneath a tree whose branches are draped in clothes.

[1] This text describes that there are in fact three possible passages across the river, sensuise (shallow water), kyōto (bridge), and kyōjinse (strong and deep currents).

[1] Rokudō jūō zu are sets of paintings that began to be produced during the thirteenth century in Japan that depict motifs of Ten Kings and the Six Realms.

[1] Datsueba appears in some of these hanging painted scrolls in a similar manner to how she was described in the Jizō jūō kyō, sitting beneath a tree by the Sanzu River between the first and second courts of the Ten Kings.

In the Jikkaizu (Painting of the Ten Worlds), a thirteenth-century Rokudō jūō zu and one of the earliest known visual depictions of Datsueba, she appears on the second of two scrolls positioned beside the gate to hell.

[1] This greatly differs from her depiction in the literary Jizō jūō kyō, in which Datsueba is involved in the hanging of spirit's clothes, which was part of the judicial process of evaluating the severity of the deceased's worldly bad deeds.

Considering that Datsueba is frequently associated with gates and boundaries between life and death, positioning her images as such might suggest her as serving the role of gatekeeper marking both a transition between sacred areas of the temple, as well as a between the realm of the living and the dead.

This new visual portrayal reflected the belief behind the Shōjuin Datsueba as a granter of wishes rather than a frightening hag in hell who is responsible for sinful spirits.