haniwa;
storage box
- Museum number
- 2003,0319.2
- Description
-
Haniwa figure of a wild boar. Made of earthenware. With paulownia storage box.
- Production date
- 3rdC-7thC
- Dimensions
-
Height: 33.60 centimetres
-
Width: 13.50 centimetres
-
Depth: 39.80 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- For a similar example, see Miki Fumio, 'Haniwa' (Nihon no bijutsu, no. 19, Nov 1967), fig. 90 (p. 61).
With its fierce mouth, protruding tusks and slanting eyes, this wild boar figure was used on a tomb to perhaps re-enact a hunting scene. Figures like this were erected on the top of monumental burial mounds with other items made of earthenware including humans, hollow cylinders, houses, boats, household objects and animals.
Known as Haniwa, the earliest types were the simple cylinders, dating to the beginning of the Kofun period (AD 258–646). These were placed close together in defined terraces. Sometimes up to two thousand were put on a single mound. Within tombs sacred treasures of swords, mirrors and jewels were buried.
Haniwa were related to the cult beliefs in the kofun period which informed the development of Japanese belief systems in association with new incoming ideas relating to the worship of Buddha and Daoism. This complex belief system sees spirits and deities as residing in every part of the natural world.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2015 – 2016 4 Dec – 29 May, National Museum of Singapore, ‘Treasures of the World’s Cultures’
2006 Oct 13- 2012 Jul 20 BM Japanese Galleries, 'Japan from prehistory to the present'
- Acquisition date
- 2003
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 2003,0319.2