The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Haniwa Figure of a Female

Haniwa Figure of a Female

c. 500s
(c. 300–538 CE)
Overall: 58.4 x 30.5 cm (23 x 12 in.)
Location: 235B Japanese

Description

Figures in a variety of dress including military and ceremonial garb start to appear on Japanese earthen mounded tombs called old mounds (kofun) from the AD 400s to 500s. This fragment depicts a woman with red triangles on her face and wearing jewelry. Archaeologists speculate that the facial markings had a ritual or symbolic function, perhaps indicating she is a female shaman. Many figures of this kind have been found in digs in the Kanto region of eastern Japan. We can only guess at the meaning of the clay cylinders called haniwa.
  • ?–1962
    (Harry C. Nail, Jr. [1909–1990], El Dorado, Arkansas, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1962–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 272 archive.org
    Moore, Janet Gaylord. The Many Ways of Seeing: An Introduction to the Pleasures of Art. Cleveland: World Pub. Co., 1968. Reproduced: p. 99
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 272 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 368 archive.org
    Gardner, Helen, Horst De la Croix, and Richard G. Tansey. Gardner's Art Through the Ages. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 400, fig. 13-1
    Gardner, Helen, Richard G. Tansey and Fred S. Kleiner. Gardner's Art Through the Ages. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1996. Reproduced: p. 531, fig. 16-2
    Grossman, Nancy, James T. Ulak, Marjorie Williams, and Laurence Channing. Art of Japan: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2005. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 17
  • Japanese Gallery 235 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (January 7-July 8, 2019).
    Asian Autumn: Early Ceramics from Japan and Korea. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 19-December 3, 1995).
    Juxtapositions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (September 11-October 10, 1965).
    Year in Review - 1962. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 24-November 25, 1962).
  • {{cite web|title=Haniwa Figure of a Female|url=false|author=|year=c. 500s|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1962.39