INDEX
Is the motivation to make Dogus a fundamental desire?
Takano：This is where your experience comes in handy. In “Dogu wo Yomu”, you hypothesized that clay figurines might be based on plants and shells.
Takekura : This has been overlooked for a long time now, but my decipherment results show that a great many of them were made in the shape of the food they ate. In particular, carbohydrate-rich plants are the main motifs. If the brain is the engine, glucose is the gasoline. This glucose is made from starch, which is produced by plants through photosynthesis. This is carbohydrate. Carbohydrates, which are gasoline, are essential for brain performance.
In addition, the satiety center also monitors blood sugar levels, so eating carbohydrates fills you up. Even if you go out to eat yakiniku and only eat meat, you will eventually want something like ochazuke. Even though meat may seem like enough, in the end you will still want rice, ramen, or other carbohydrates. I think this mechanism is a tendency that was created during the course of human evolution.
Takano：Do you think that making a Dogu of something you desire is like leaving behind a form of something you like?
Takekura：I don’t think people would go to the trouble of making clay figurines unless they had a considerable incentive to do so. So the plants and shells that were used as motifs would have a certain value. To put it plainly, appetite is the motivation.
Celeina：In the modern age, I think we have figurines of things we like. Do the Jomon people feel the same way as we modern people do?
Takekura：Yes. I don’t think they would bother to make something cumbersome unless they had a very strong underlying desire to do so. My analysis is that the reason why the figurines that ancient people made at such a high cost were related to obtaining food is because it was directly linked to maintaining life.
Celeina: Very interesting.
Takano: How did the Jomon people live with Dogus?
Takekura: I think some people had clay figurines and some did not, but it was still cultivation. What has recently come to light through further research is a scenario in which they used them as a spell or incantation to wish for the seeds they sowed to germinate and grow quickly when they cultivated their own plants. It is similar to the way people today make teru teru bozu when they want the weather to be sunny.
Celeina：Is it also like a good luck charm?
Takekura: I think it was probably converted into a good-luck charm as well.
Takano：So it’s a way of saying, “May you grow up well.
