The Figure in Clay: Japanese Dogu

Japanese Dogu, or clay figurines, date back to as early as 1000 B.C., all the way until the end of the Jomon Period, around 300 B.C. These ancient, earthenware figurines are rather mysterious. No clear answer for what purpose they served exists, although some suggest that they may be fertility symbols, since the vast majority of these figures depict highly stylized female figures, as can be seen in the image below. One might draw parallelisms between the Japanese Dogu Figurines and the Venus figurines from the Upper Paleolithic period in Europe and parts of Asia (not pictured). Both ranging is size from something that can fit in the palm of a hand to about a foot tall.

Dogu (Clay Figurine)

The clay used would have been molded mostly by the women of the Jomon culture and could be mixed with anything from led to crushed up shells, mica or other more organic fibrous materials. Tools were used to shape the clay during sculpting or coil building. Once bone dry, the clay objects would have been fired

Because some Dogu appear to have been intentionally broken, experts have theorized that they may have played a role in a ritual, in which, a person suffering from an ailment would ceremonially transfer the ailment into the clay image. The figure would be discarded following the ceremony. This theory is supported by the fact that Dogu are never found at burial sights, instead they have been found scattered all across the island. Most are found in ancient trash heaps, believe it or not.

The part of this work that mostly inspires me, personally, is not the ritual side. Concerning that bit of its presumed history, I am more interested by the act of the ritual itself. Rather, I am more concerned with the primitive need for expression of feeling and thought forcing it’s way into physical reality, in the lives of prehistoric men, much like, as I have said, the Venus figurines found in Europe, as some of the oldest “sculptural” evidence of civilization.

Dogu (Clay Figurine)

It might be, for all we know, that these were early portraits of “hot” women that were given in place of flower arrangements by prehistoric men. That would not take, for me, any significance away from the objects, mostly because of the sheer ancientness and understated sophistication of them as art objects, being some of the earliest symbols, presumably, of men and women.