Haniwa (Clay Sculpture) of a Female Shrine Attendant

Burial mound figures, or haniwa, were the most important funerary furnishings of the Kofun period. Because male and female haniwa have similar faces, gender identification is difficult. Nevertheless, in most cases clothing and hairstyles serve to distinguish males from females. Men wear hats and helmets, their long hair tied in two ponytails. Women are shown with their hair piled high upon their heads. The special charm of these figures derives from their simple, abstracted forms, with no attempt made to model either face or body, and a disregard for realism, which gives them a vivid immediacy. It is doubtful that the makers of these engaging figures intended to portray emotion; the perception of a particular mood is in the mind of the beholder. Indeed, depending on the position of the viewer, the facial expressions of haniwa seem to change.
This fragment of a haniwa figure with a guileless, childlike expression portrays a young woman, so identified by her imposing chignon, which resembles a mortarboard. The hair is tied in two parts by a ribbon that is visible when viewed from above; indentations detected from the underside of the disk show the parting of the hairknot. The coiffure is adorned with a comblike ornament and a band with a triangle pattern, partially painted red. Directly below the hairline is a long, straight ridge, also painted red, probably indicating eyebrows. The facial features, rendered with no attempt at modeling, are expressed by the simplest means—two almond-shaped slits for the eyes, a chunk of clay for the nose (partially restored), and a small opening for the mouth.
With festive rouge on her cheeks, the young woman wears a beaded necklace and earrings that cover her ears. She is dressed in a high-necked tunic with tight-fitting sleeves decorated with dots, suggesting deerskin. A shawl-like cloth covers her right shoulder. The raised right arm tapers off to an ill-defined, damaged hand. The left arm, now lost, may have held offerings or been raised in the same manner as her right. The torso is lost, but it is likely that the figure originally wore a flared jacket over a skirt that ended rather abruptly above the usual cylindrical base.
We do not know whether the figure portrays a particular individual, nor do we know her station in society. It has been suggested that the rouge, earrings, and necklace identify the figure as a participant in a funeral ceremony.[1] Alternately, such adornments have been thought to indicate that the woman was a sorceress. It has also been proposed that the facial paint represents a tattoo.[2] Whatever the case, the consensus is that the color had a ceremonial significance. The figure may come from the Kanto region of eastern Japan, where many fine human-shaped haniwa were made in the sixth century.

[Miyeko Murase 2000, Bridge of Dreams]

[1] Doi Takashi in Pearson et al. 1991, no. 56.
[2] Kobayashi Yukio 1990, p. 100.

Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation , New York (until 2015; donated to MMA)

Richmond. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. "Jewel Rivers: Japanese Art from The Burke Collection.," October 25, 1993–January 2, 1994.

Santa Barbara Museum of Art. "Jewel Rivers: Japanese Art from The Burke Collection.," February 26, 1994–April 24, 1994.

Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "Jewel Rivers: Japanese Art from The Burke Collection.," October 14, 1994–January 1, 1995.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Japanese Art from The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," March 30–June 25, 2000.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Celebrating the Arts of Japan: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," October 20, 2015–May 14, 2017.

Tsuji Nobuo 辻惟雄, Mary Griggs Burke, Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha 日本経済新聞社, and Gifu-ken Bijutsukan 岐阜県美術館. Nyūyōku Bāku korekushon-ten: Nihon no bi sanzennen no kagayaki ニューヨーク・バーク・コレクション展 : 日本の美三千年の輝き(Enduring legacy of Japanese art: The Mary Griggs Burke collection). Exh. cat. [Tokyo]: Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha, 2005, p. 59, cat. no. 2.

Murase, Miyeko, Il Kim, Shi-yee Liu, Gratia W. Nakahashi, Stephanie Wada, Soyoung Lee, and David Ake Sensabaugh. Art Through a Lifetime: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection. Vol. 2, Japanese Objects, Korean Art, Chinese Art. [New York]: Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, [2013], p. 16, cat. no. 562.