Iron Age · Late 5th century AD · Nishikaminomiya site, Isesaki, Gunma Prefecture, Japan
1,500-year-old clay figure of a female shaman found in Japanese tomb moat
The late 5th-century haniwa from Gunma Prefecture still carries red paint on its face, sash and bracelets, and goes on show from 28 October.
Official announcement
Nishikaminomiya site, Isesaki, Japan Archaeologists in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, have recovered a well-preserved clay figure of a female shaman from the moat around an ancient burial mound. The figure is a haniwa, one of the clay sculptures set out on Japanese burial mounds. It was made in the late 5th century AD.
The find comes from the Nishikaminomiya site in Isesaki City. The Gunma Prefectural Government announced it on 21 October. The figure goes on public display for the first time on Wednesday, 28 October.
A rescue dig beside the Tone River
Crews from the Gunma Archaeological Foundation have excavated the site since fiscal 2020. The work is taking place ahead of a river improvement project along the Tone River. Over those years the team has located 11 tombs from the 5th and 6th centuries.
The figure belongs to Tomb No. 1, the largest of the group. Its mound is roughly 45 to 50 metres long, and the moat around it is about 18 metres across. Earlier digging found part of a boat-shaped stone coffin there. Researchers therefore see this tomb as the centre of the cemetery.
This year the team worked on the southern end of the tomb, which touches the river. Everyone had thought the tomb was round. The new work instead showed a platform projecting from the mound, a feature called a tsukuridashi. The figure lay in the moat below it. It had tumbled off the platform.
Red paint and careful details
What survives runs from the head down to the torso. It is about 40 centimetres tall. Her hair is done in a looped knot known as kofun shimada, a style worn by women. The team reads this hairstyle as marking her out as a shaman.
A strip of clay across the top of her head shows where the hair was tied. A sash crosses her chest from the right shoulder to the left. The sash, the hair tie and her bracelets all carry red paint. So does her face.
The maker took care over details no one would spot from a distance. Her right wrist wears a bracelet modelled in clay and coloured red. The left wrist shows red paint only. Each hand has fingers, and the nostrils were pierced through the clay.
In her left hand she holds a stick-shaped ritual tool. Researchers do not yet know what the object was used for.
Human-shaped haniwa first appeared in the Kinai region in the early 5th century. In Gunma they turn up from the late 5th century on. The prefecture describes this figure as valuable because it is among the older examples in Gunma. Few figures from that period survive in such good shape.
The haniwa will be shown in the second-floor exhibition room of the Excavation Information Hall. The hall is part of the Gunma Archaeological Cultural Properties Research Center. The display opens on the foundation's Public Outreach Day and runs for one month. The hall is closed on Saturdays. Officials have no plans to open the excavation site itself to visitors.
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