Excavated at Ichikawa, Tagajō-shi, Miyagi. 8th century.
Height 16.5cm.
Laboratory of Archaeology, Tohoku Gakuin University
This earthenware jar is painted with a four-sided human mask in ink, with thick eyebrows, large eyes, and a goatee, all of which show clear traces of ink. These ink brushwork human mask vessels were found in government offices, riverbeds and wells in the surrounding areas from the Nara period to the early Heian period over a wide area from the Tohoku region to Kyushu.
