Female Figurine with Topknot
1000–300 B.C.
- Medium
- Earthenware
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- 14 × 8.9 × 7 cm (5 1/2 × 3 1/2 × 2 3/4 in.)
- Culture
- Japan
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Asia
- Credit line
- Purchased with Funds Provided by the Weston Foundation; President's Exhibition and Acquisition Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
Jōmon figurines vary greatly in size, manufacture, and refinement, and they are often found broken, as if they have been thrown away. Noticeable in this figurine are the elaborate hairstyle and the patterns on the shoulders. The hairstyle along with the appearance of breasts would indicate that the figurine is meant to represent a female figure. Such figures are thought to have been used as part of rituals relating to childbirth, though the nature of those rituals and why the figures are often found broken is unknown.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
