Haniwa Dancing People
Kofun period, sixth century
Two hollow clay figures, one taller than the other, stand side by side with one arm raised and the other hanging loose, their mouths open in round holes and their eyes cut as simple ovals. They look as if they are singing, or waving, or caught in a step of a dance, and they have been called the dancing people for more than half a century. The taller one wears a topknot and a sword and may be a man; the smaller is thought to be a woman. Both stand on the plain cylinders that anchored them in the earth of a tomb.
Compared with the elaborate armoured warrior nearby, these figures are made with the fewest possible gestures. The maker rolled coils of clay into tubes, added flat arms and small noses, and cut the features with a knife before firing, so the figures have the directness of a child's drawing. That simplicity is exactly what makes them expressive; the raised arms and open mouths read as joy from across the room. Look closely and you can see the finger marks in the clay and the line of the cut that opened the mouth.
They were found at Nohara in Kumagaya, Saitama prefecture, in 1930 and were interpreted as dancers at a funeral rite, though some archaeologists now think the raised arm shows a groom leading a horse by the reins. Whatever they were doing, they have become the most loved haniwa in Japan, reproduced on stamps, posters and countless souvenirs, and the museum uses them as its friendly public face. They have been lent to exhibitions abroad but normally stand in the archaeology gallery among the other tomb figures.
Did You Know? The raised arm may not be a dance step at all; some scholars think the figures are leading a horse by its reins.
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