Haniwa! New Exhibit Showcases Japan Before It Became Japan

Haniwa! New Exhibit Showcases Japan Before It Became Japan

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Haniwa
Pictures by the author and marumaru / PIXTA(ピクスタ)
Want a rare peak into Japan's pre-history? An expanded exhibit at Tokyo National Museum is celebrating Haniwa, funerary statues from the country's Kofun Era, bringing some rare pieces together under the same roof for the first time.

The Haniwa are an enduring piece of history from Japan’s Kofun Era (3rd to 6th centuries CE). Now, to celebrate a happy anniversary, the Tokyo National Museum has expanded upon its permanent Haniwa exhibit. At its center is a set of celebrated works, collected under the same roof for the first time.

The Kofun Era

Haniwa man with a beard
Haniwa Man with a Beard, from the 6th century Kofun era, represents one of the tallest Haniwa human figures made at 173cm. This sculpture is a restoration from multiple fragments.

For many centuries, Japan existed mostly as a set of warring clans and fiefdoms. The country wouldn’t exist loosely as a unified entity until the Tokugawa clan took over. The Tokugawas united Japan’s various warlords through military subjugation in the Edo era, starting in the 17th century. “Japan” wouldn’t exist formally until the architects of the Meiji era undertook their mythbuilding project in the late 19th century. Its principles instilled in people a national consciousness focused on Japan’s emperor.

By contrast, no one had a concept of “Japan” as a unified nation during the Kofun era. Back then, Chinese scholars referred to the land as Wa (倭). A series of clans and kings ruled Wa, each with hold over various territories.

One of these, the Yamato clan, would come to power in the subsequent Asuka Era (538-710 CE), creating the Imperial Court that still exists in Japan today. They would also re-christen the country with its current name: Nihon or Nippon (日本), “origin of the sun.”

Chinese and Korean scholars wrote a little about the Kofun period. There was no native Japanese writing system at the time, however. Kanshiki-wabun (Japanese written with Chinese characters) and further evolutions of Japanese writing only gained popularity among the elite in the latter half of this period. (Much that’s written about Japan’s emperors of this period in the country’s earliest chronicles, the Kojiki and Nihon Shiki, is historically dubious.)

As a result, much of what we know about the Kofun Era comes from its burial mounds – and the Haniwa.

The history of the Haniwa

The Haniwa are terracotta clay sculptures made using a piled coil technique (wazumi). The people of the Kofun era usually buried them with the celebrated dead – political and military leaders – as funerary objects. They placed other figures around the outside of the ceremonial burial mounds.

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The burial mounds were either square, circle, or often keyhole-shaped. Early mounds, such as the Todaijiyama tumulus in the Nara basin, show that kings of the time may have also acted like priests. The quantity of goods buried with a particular figure corresponded with their rank in society.

We know little about the lives of the people during the Kofun Era. The Haniwa – which depict not only warriors but houses, equipment, and people of various occupations and social status – provide one of the few glimpses we have into daily life during this time period.

Haniwa started as cylindrical objects placed atop the tombs of fallen leaders. Over time, however, they grew more detailed and varied. During the middle Kofun period, statues in the form of shrine maidens and animals appeared.

The Haniwa come mainly from the Kinai region (the region around Nara) and from the southern and middle portions of the main island of Honshu. The production of Haniwa in Kinai declined toward the end of the Kofun period as the custom of building burial mounds for the powerful fell out of popularity. However, the Kanto region (around modern-day Tokyo) continued to produce them in abundance.

Map of the Haniwa across Japan
A map displaying where the various Haniwa were discovered across Japan. (Picture by the author)

Tokyo National Museum’s Haniwa exhibit

The Haniwa Dancing People
The Haniwa Dancing People. (Picture by the author)

One of the most famous of the unearthed Haniwa is the so-called Haniwa Dancing People (埴輪踊る人々; haniwa odoru hitobito). According to the exhibit, the Dancing People epitomize the approach to sculpture taken during this period, which captured people’s forms loosely instead of realistically. Indeed, the figures are almost ghostly or yokai-esque in appearance.

Archeologists unearthed the Dancing People in 1930. However, time has taken a rough toll on the Haniwa. The figures were too brittle for the Museum to loan out, which led to the Museum and the National Center for the Promotion of Cultural Properties undertaking a restoration project.

From October 2022 to March 2024, the two institutions dismantled and repaired the Haniwa Dancing People. The current exhibition celebrates, in part, the unveiling of the restored figurines, along with other figures from the Museum’s permanent Haniwa exhibit.

The kings and the workers

Walking through the exhibit tells a story about how the concerns and focus of society during this period shifted over time. For example, during the middle Kofun period, we witness a marked increase in the number of military implements. The tanko armor created by the Yamato kingship and distributed to kings across Japan is one such example.

Tanko armor - Haniwa exhibit

The exhibit also offers a glimpse into the lives of ordinary citizens as well. One impressive double-sided lineup of figures depicts people from various social classes. They include a falconer, packhorse driver, and a farmer, among many others.

The renderings differ based on social status. We can only see those of lower status from the waist up. Artists rendered those of higher status from head to toe.

Lineup of everyday Haniwa figures

One intriguing figure depicts a man described as a “wrestler.” He wears a loincloth sash and has both feet planted firmly into the ground. Scholars believe these people participated in funerary rituals, stomping the ground to quell the spirits underneath the burial mound.

Haniwa wrestler

The Warriors in Keiko Armor

Haniwa Warrior in Keiko Armor exhibit

The other highlight of the exhibition is the Warrior in Keiko Armor (挂甲の武人; keikou no bujin). This event celebrates the 50th anniversary of Japan’s government designating the first statue, owned by the Tokyo National Museum, as a national treasure.

There are six such statues, with four of them now designated national treasures. Five reside in Japan, with the sixth held by the Seattle Asian Art Museum in the United States. The Tokyo National Museum has the first statue. It’s taken the other five on loan for this event. That makes this the first time all five can be seen under the same roof.

Haniwa Warrior in Keiko armor number 60 (from Gunma)
Warrior in Keiko Armor. Discovered at the Watanuki Kannonyama Tumulus in Gunma. Permanently held by the Gunma prefectural Museum of History.

Many Haniwa were also painted. However, because they were painted after being baked, most of the figures’ paint has worn off over time. To give a glimpse into what they might have looked like originally, the Museum has reconstructed the white, red, and grey pigments in which their Warrior was painted based on traces found on the original.

Haniwa Warrior in Keiko Armo - reconstructed figure based on original paint traces

How to see Haniwa

The Haniwa exhibit offers a rare, panoramic glimpse into an intriguing period of Japanese pre-history. I encourage everyone who has a chance to check it out and learn a little bit about the centuries before Japan became Japan.

The exhibit is currently running at Tokyo National Museum, near Ueno Station, until December 8th. You can buy tickets from the Museum’s website or buy them same day on-site.

If you miss it – don’t worry! The exhibit will travel next to Kyushu, showing at the Kyushu National Museum in Fukuoka from January 21st to May 11th.

What to read next

Sources

「はにわ」展、東博で16日開幕 国宝・挂甲の武人など120件集結. Asahi Shimbun

2025年1月21日(火)開幕!特別展「はにわ」九州国立博物館  10月26日(土)各種チケット 販売開始!PRTimes

Haniwa. Wikipedia

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Jay Allen

Jay is a resident of Tokyo where he works as a reporter for Unseen Japan and as a technial writer. A lifelong geek, wordsmith, and language fanatic, he has level N1 certification in the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) and is fervently working on his Kanji Kentei Level 2 certification.

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