Four diminutive cups and figurines of humans and animals decorate the shoulder of this jar. The lively figurines evoke scenes from daily life: wrestlers and a referee, a deer hunt and the carrying home of the game. Such decorated jars were widely produced in the early-6th Century for burial in stone chamber tombs.

Height: 37.5 cm
Kofun Period (6th Century)
Excavation site: Nishimiyayama Tumulus, Hyogo Prefecture
JK 216
Kyoto National Museum