Haniwa terracotta horse
Kofun period, 6th century
Kyushu National Museum
How is this cute? Just look at how it’s playing innocent with its blank expression... Some may even say it looks ugly but adorable! Nonetheless, it reigns king of the haniwa animal kingdom, adored second to none by the wealthy and powerful. Even the detailed ornaments it wears are cute.
Bead resembling a person’s face
Roman period, 2,200–1,600 years ago
Kyushu National Museum (donated by Shibata Emiko)
No matter where we come from, we can all agree: there is something so cute about small things! People in the past, too, made a lot of these colorful beads. It’s like they wanted to make bracelets or necklaces out of these, but also refused to have the exact same one as the next person. Some things truly don’t change, do they?
Compound comma-shaped beads
Kofun period, 6th century
Kyushu National Museum
Cute + cute = cuter, right? That’s probably why the ancient people stuck multiple comma-shaped beads onto a bigger one, resulting in these small, lovable animal-shaped beads. Just imagine, they wore such heavy beads for the sake of accessorizing... Hilarious!