Fig. 14 A ceramic vessel with animal- shaped handles ( cat. 50). Jomon potters were adept at creating forms that represented the spirit world of which they were a part. 32 Inspiration: human, animal and plant forms Most Jomon people probably had a very detailed knowledge of the animals and plants they encountered, hunted, reared and consumed. In the world they shared with the spirits, however, they surely had different ways of categorizing and naming them, and indeed of understanding the spirits' relationship with people and animals. Just as they used the human form as the model for the majority of dogu, so on occasion they turned to other forms of life for inspiration. Animal-shaped doguinclude wild boar, dogs, monkeys, bears, sea mammals, insects, shellfish and birds. Some were important food resources; others may have presented significant cues that the seasons were changing. As with the anthropomorphic dogu, many were relatively abstracted, making it difficult to be certain as to what species is being represented, if any. Such abstraction was probably quite intentional, blurring the boundaries between what modern viewers might consider reality and the fantastic, a boundary that Jomon dogumakers may have deliberately manipulated, or not even have recognized. Although much fewer in number than their anthropomorphic counterparts, doguin animal or plant form were made most notably in eastern Japan in the Late Jomon. And while most Jomon pots bore what seem to the modern viewer abstract patterns, Middle Jomon potters chose to use animal- inspired motifs, including wild boar and dogs. Their worlds would have been densely occupied by non- human entities, and it is likely that a variety of acts were per formed to propitiate such spirits so as to ensure good returns from fishing, gathering and hunting trips. 18Representations of hunting scenes may have played an important role in such rites. Elsewhere, notably in the central mountains of Honshu during the Middle Jomon, it is possible that there was an elaborate pantheon of spirits, including snakes, frogs and fish with specific symbolic meanings. 19In many small- scale societies around the world, specialists continue to have privileged access to the world of the spirits, communicating with them through a variety of shamanistic practices that often involve summoning animal spirit guides and taking on alternative personalities, transforming themselves into animals and so forth. 20 Such shamanic practices often involve inducing a trance- like state, perhaps through the use of mind- altering substances. Jomon shamans may have used such substances, for example the mushrooms ( fig. 15) that inspired so many ceramic copies across north- eastern Honshu in the Late Jomon, or alcoholic beverages that may have been brewed up in the perforated and flanged vessels ( cat. 43). These beliefs in transformation and the ability to cross the boundaries to the spirit world may materialize in the pottery vessels, from which strange human- like and animal- inspired forms seem to emerge. Perhaps the walls of the vessels presented, or were believed to form, one type of boundary with the spirit world, comparable to the way the walls of caves were used and adorned by prehistoric painters in other parts of the world. Jomon potters chose to represent only a small selection of the animals exploited by their communities. Interestingly, although deer formed a key element in the Jomon diet, they are rarely depicted by potters; whereas wild boar are presented in detail with great attention, as seen in the Tokoshinai example ( cat. 54). It has been suggested that, in some cases, young wild boar were reared within Jomon communities, and familiarity with them could explain the penchant for depicting the distinctive stripes of juveniles on boar- shaped dogu, Fig. 15 Jomon people had a detailed knowledge of the plants available to them and their properties. These ceramic mushrooms are perhaps modelled on those with mind- altering properties, which were probably used to help the Jomon achieve other states of consciousness as part of their ritual practices.
Fig. 11 Meiji period scholars such as ono Nobutaro suggested that the designs on the faces of some dogurepresented tattoos. A series of early articles about dogu, including this one, were published in the Journal of the Anthropological Society of Tokyo from 1910. Encountering dogu31 notably the Pacific, tattooing is an important part of personal identification and marks the boundary between the interior and the exterior of the individual. Esaka identified two main forms of tattoo on the faces of dogu. 16The first consists of lines running down from the eyes to the cheeks, possibly tears. The second comprises patterns around the mouth, sometimes forming triangles. 17 Completing the look of the doguwas an array of personal accessories, including ear ornaments and possibly necklaces. Archaeology highlights the accessories Jomon people used, including beads and shell armlets, and various types of ear ornament. In the Early Jomon thin rounded stones, with a slit to attach them to the earlobe, were popular, quite similar to examples from north-eastern China. It is not until the Late Jomon that ear ornaments begin to be reflected on dogu, when they appear in various forms: circular, mushroom-shaped, or projecting ( fig. 13). Some of the cylindrical dogu, for example that from Tokonauchi in Ibaraki, have projections from the earlobes suggesting some form of ornamentation, and some of the triangular- headed dogualso have incisions and other patterns suggesting that ear ornaments were present. The circular relief designs on a number of the horned- owl figures are probably also ear ornaments. By the end of the Late Jomon ear ornaments were perhaps being worn by many in Japan, and in the Final Jomon it seems that they were being produced by specialist workshops. One at Kayano in Gunma prefecture was producing exquisite circular interlaced ear spools, which may have been inserted into pierced earlobes ( fig. 12). These have been excavated in the Kanto region, dating from the Final Jomon period, and in Tohoku large ear ornaments are also known. This high degree of attention to bodily ornamentation in dogufrom the Middle Jomon onwards may speak of a rich variety of meanings attached to various parts of the body among the many communities of the Jomon archipelago. Esaka, however, is correct to remind us that we are not necessarily seeing direct reflections of how the dogumakers might have wanted to see themselves, and that they were adept at exaggeration and abstraction of aspects of their creations. Fig. 13 A number of doguare depicted with ear ornaments ( from top to bottom: cats 26, 30 and 31). Fig. 12 This line drawing shows a circular interlaced ear spool earring from Kayano, Gunma prefecture.