Jewel Beetle Ornament: Art, Animals, and Power in East Asia, 5th–8th Centuries

Abstract

In premodern East Asia, animals that display vivid colors supplied some of the rarest, most precious materials for making sumptuous artifacts. Funerary and Buddhist artifacts from Japan and Korea dated to the period between the fifth and the eighth centuries preserve a decorative technique that uses the exoskeletons of jewel beetles (Chrysochroa fulgidissima), a species native to East Asia known for its stunning iridescence. Collected from dispersed habitats and lavished on artifacts reserved for the upper echelons of society, the jewel-like insects disclose the complex interrelationships of art, animals, and power that underpin the history of ornamentation. Such interrelationships remain largely underexplored in existing scholarship, which primarily treats the decorative use of insects as a material and technical feature of historical artifacts with little relevance for understanding their social function or cultural meaning. This dissertation draws on methodologies from material culture studies, ecocritical art history, and animal-human studies to reframe the history of jewel beetle ornament against the backdrop of the rise of centralized states, increased interregional connectivity, and intensified exploitation of natural resources. Instead of treating jewel beetle ornaments as mere embellishments, I approach them as compelling examples of how animals and humans embedded in their shared ecologies shaped the production and consumption of elite artifacts during a transformative period in East Asian history. The dissertation is organized into two parts. Part I, “Materials and Making,” consists of two chapters that follow the movement of jewel beetles from their habitats in broadleaf forests to artisans’ workshops and elite patrons’ collections, examining jewel beetles as vital things with unique physical and optical properties and environmental settings that shape human interactions with them. Part II, “Ornament and Power,” is organized as three case studies of extant artifacts with jewel beetle ornaments that delve into how the physical, sensory, and symbolic presence of animals empowers objects to mediate social interactions and ritual experiences. Together, the two parts of the dissertation use jewel beetle ornament as an analytical thread to interweave discussions of a diverse corpus of prestige goods, funerary art, and Buddhist ritual paraphernalia. By focusing on the materiality and insectile origin of beetle ornaments, this project elucidates the entanglement of animals and animal bodies in the construction and expression of power within political and religious contexts.