“Dogû” is a Japanese term literally translatable as “clay figurines.” The following text is from the flyer advertising Dogû, a Cosmos, an exhibition at the Miho Museum in Shigaraki, Japan. The image that follows the text is from the exhibition flyer. It contains the original Japanese text as well as examples of the figurines in question. It may be worth noting that these figurines were first discovered in northeast Japan and attributed by their finder to the Emishi, a people believed to be the ancestors of the modern Ainu. Examples have since been discovered the length and breadth of Japan, giving credence to the claim that they were produced by the prehistoric ancestors of modern Japanese. For more information on the Jomon period during which these figurines were produced,look here. 

The Jomon period had just begun when people began making small figurines of clay. Were there real women whose bodies were this surprisingly curvaceous? At first, the figurines had no heads or hands or feet. Sometimes the entire lower half of the body was missing. They were tiny, precious treasures, small enough to hide in the palm of your hand. Over the next several thousand years, the figurines acquired heads and hands and feet. The “Jomon Venus”  (designated a National Treasure) was born. Her face is heart shaped, her hair style exotic. The exaggerated breadth of her hips is striking. She was carefully buried in the center of a village. Was she buried to accompany the dead? Or worshipped as a goddess?

Another several thousand years passed. Now “goggle-eyed” figurines were painted with gorgeous colors. 

During the more than ten thousand years of the Jomon period, these clay figurines were produced  throughout Japan. For this exhibition, examples from Hokkaido to Kyushu have been brought together here in Shigaraki. In their powerful presence, you can see the roots of the Japanese people.