Representing Taiwan's Indigenous Peoples: Japanese Hakata Figurines

Because of its origin as the Governor-General’s Office Museum under the Japanese, the National Taiwan Museum’s collections feature objects that reflect the types of knowledge that the colonial government thought would be most useful for their political mission. For Taiwan’s indigenous peoples, the colonial authorities believed that the better informed they were of the various tribes’ cultures, the more easily they could govern them.

 

One such example from NTM is the set of Hakata figurines made by Kiyosuke Inoue from 1910 to 1913. Called “Hakata ningyo” in Japanese, these are traditional dolls made of unglazed pottery colored with vegetable pigment-based paints, from Hakata, Fukuoka. They first became known internationally through the presentation of the “Figurines of the Customs of the World’s Peoples” collection at the Third Japanese Exposition to Promote Industry in 1890 and the Exposition Universelle (Paris World Exposition) in 1900. Later, the popularity of Hakata dolls increased when American soldiers brought them back to the United States after World War II. 

The seven pairs of figurines on display at NTM come from the “Figurines of the Customs of the World’s People” collection, which was part of a series titled “Inoue’s Geographical and Historic Specimens” that was used for teaching purposes. Based on research from anthropologists Mori Ushinosuke and Shogoro Tsuboi, these specific figurines depict the Amis, Atayal, Bunun, Paiwan, Saisiyat, Tsou, and Yami (Tao) tribes. Each indigenous group is represented by one male figurine and one female figurine. Notably, the designs emphasize the indigenous peoples’ physical appearances, especially their clothing and the objects that they carry. They also act as models of what members of these tribes “should” most typically look like, according to the Japanese.

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Keep an eye out for the next post, where the Japanese depiction of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples by these figurines will be compared with the Qing dynasty’s depiction in the 18th-century Imperial Tribute Illustrations.