The Power of Dogu at the British Museum

'Making figures out of clay is an almost universal human activity – so much so that in many creation myths, it is the metaphor for how God made mankind,” writes British Museum director Neil MacGregor in the catalogue for a compelling new exhibition of ancient Japanese clay figures, or do?u. “But the J?mon ceramic tradition…is possibly the oldest in the world.” While elsewhere men were stalking woolly mammoths and giant beavers, the people of J?mon era Japan (roughly 14,000–400BC), were sitting around fashioning clay into exquisite human figurines, which even now have the ring of great art. These foot-high do?u were not merely decorative; they were also thought to wield spiritual powers. The three figures shown here have a combined age of around 10,000 years, but what is most striking about them is their sense of modernity: they bear an uncanny resemblance to the kind of pieces that emerged from the kilns of Picasso or Max Ernst so many millennia later.

• 'The Power of Do?u: Ceramic Figures from Ancient Japan’ is at the British Museum, London WC1 (020 7323 8299) from Thurs