Flame and Water Pots: Prehistoric Ceramic Art from Japan

This is a rare opportunity to see two spectacular Japanese prehistoric pots dating from the Middle J?mon period (3500-2500 BCE).

A distinctively decorated ‘flame’ pot (kaengata-doki) and a beautiful ‘crown’ pot (okangata-doki), both excavated from the Iwanohara site, Nagaoka city, and on rare loan from the Nagaoka Municipal Science Museum, are exhibited alongside the British Museum’s own example of a Jomon pot which featured in the series A History of the World in 100 Objects.

The term Jomon (ÆçÅëj literally means ‘cord marked’ and is used to refer to Japan’s oldest known culture – the Jomon people.

The display tells us about the thriving, semi-nomadic society that created these unique vessels, and reveals the vessels’ enduring fascination by looking at their impact since the nineteenth century on regional identity in Japan and on the Japanese imagination, through manga, ceramics and music.