This paper deals with the issue of how the images of heaven and hell are presented in Byzantine and in Japanese Buddhist art. Given the differences and similarities between the languages of art, canons and civilizational codes, we will primarily consider form, style and thematic-motific connection – but only to the extent to which such comparisons can be considered as possible and methodologically correct: as the most attractive sign of the feeling of life, which dramatically warns, invokes, redeems or conceives the tragedy of historical experience, but also as a sign of the state of mind and consciousness of different social communities.