With Mt Fuji’s registration, World Heritage sites are much in the news at the moment, and in this regard I’ve been looking at Japan’s Tentative List and the twelve sites which are currently waiting their turn to be nominated. One of them is titled, Jomon Archaeological Sites in Hokkaido and Northern Tohoku, which led me to the wonderful Japanese pottery website and its page on the clay figures known as dogu.
Some dogu are clearly related to fertility, and some are baffling goggle-eyed aliens apparently dressed in space wear. Mankind’s links with other worlds was never shown so graphically. Erich von Daniken hardly needed to build a thesis in Chariots of Gods (1968) about extraterrestrial influence on earthlings; it’s all demonstrated visually in the dogu !
The following excerpt, and the photos on this page, are taken from the superb yakimono.net (with thanks to Robert Yellin):
*********************************************************************
Some of the most intriguing works from the Jomon period are clay figurines called dogu (pronounced dough-goo). There are many theories on what they were used for with the main agreement being they were a talisman for good health or safe childbirth. As many were excavated in fragments, it’s believed that after the wish was fulfilled, or not, the dogu was broken and thrown on the trash heap; that’s where many were discovered. Another theory is that these were goddesses to whom Jomon people prayed to for food and health.
Other explanations are toys for children, funerary offerings, or objects used in some unknown ritual. And, of course, there are those who believe they were aliens from outer space. Yet, if you look at similar primitive artifacts from around the world (the Valdivia culture of Ecuador, for example) there is a certain resemblance that can’t be explained in logical terms. It might have been part of the collective consciousness of the times though, or did earth in fact have space-suited visitors from a distant galaxy? The pictured dogu sure seems to fit the match!
Dogu were found all over Japan with northern Japan, the Tohoku region, yielding the most variety. Dogu first appeared in early Jomon but began to flourish in Middle Jomon through Late Jomon. (For a timeline outlining the development of Japanese pottery, please click here.)
Many of them have the distinctive Jomon rope-cord patterns while others have been intricately carved with arabesque-like designs. Some in outer-space garb are known as the “goggles type” and no explanation is needed for that naming. Whatever the markings, they are all eerily moving and can’t help but spark one’s imagination in wondering about life so many thousand of years ago, and the miracle it is today.
As Joseph Campbell once wrote: “Take, for example, a pencil, ashtray, anything, and holding it before you in both hands (in this case looking at dogu), regard it for awhile. Forgetting its name and use, yet continuing to regard it, ask yourself seriously, What is it? Its dimension of wonder opens, for the mystery of the being of that thing is identical with the mystery of the being of the universe, and yourself.”
A Korean named ChungHae Amana Oh wrote a little book called Cosmogonical Worldview of Jomon Pottery based entirely on imagining the kind of world that could have created dogu. There’s much more that could be said… or left unsaid.
I blog often and I genuinely thank you for your
information. This great article has really peaked my interest.
I will book mark your site and keep checking for new details about
once per week. I subscribed to your RSS feed as well.
Hello, of course this article is actually pleasant
and I have learned lot of things from it regarding blogging.
thanks.