Benevolent deities are depicted eradicating various types of evil demons that interfere with the happiness of human beings; the deities’ role in preventing and dispelling harm is related to an ancient Chinese tradition. Here, their depictions include Buddhist deities as well as those beyond the Buddhist pantheon. This was originally a handscroll, and the forms, drawing, and writing style are similar to those seen in other works like the Tales of the Śramaṇa Buddhist Hells, also in the Nara National Museum Collection; the two works were kept together into the modern period.
 
KITAZAWA NatsukiEnglish by Mary Lewine 
Buddhist Art Paradise: Jewels of the Nara National Museum. Nara National Museum, 2021.7, p.337, no.160. 

Originally these paintings were all included in one handscroll. Deities such as Tenkeisei, Sendan Kendatsuba, Shinchū, Shōki, Bishamon-ten are depicted in the pictures as exterminating demons and evil spirits. According to some old documents, on the occasion of the Butsumyō-e ritual in the court, which was performed for the purpose of repentance of people's sins for the year and exorcism, folding screens called "Taisō-byōbu" were used instead of the screens with illustrations of hell. Therefore, there is a possibility that the paintings of deities' exterminating evilness were used at the Butsumyō-e ritual in the court. As the painting style and the type of these scrolls introduced in this article are similar to those of "Scroll of Hells" and "Scroll of Hungry Ghosts", some art historians include these paintings of deities in the category of "Rokudō-e" (paintings of the Six Realms). 
Masterpieces of Nara National Museum. Nara National Museum, 1993, pp.48-49, no.32.