Japanese Folding Fans

This month's feature is a pair of Japanese folding fans. They are numbered in the museum collection as #1989.1407 and 1408. Folding fans first appeared in Japan during the Heian period, around the 6th century. The two primary types of folding fans are commonly called sensu and hiogi. A sensu is like the images above, consisting of long wooden strips with folded paper in between, unfolding like a bat's wing. A hiogi is made with long slats of wood held together with stitches, so that when it unfolds, the wood fans out without large gaps. The number of slats originally represented rank when hiogi became popular in court a few centuries ago. 

These two fans have designs on both sides, and 10 bamboo supports. The first one is pained entirely in gold and features painted chrysanthemums, balloon flowers, and an ornamental plant on the front, and irises and cherry blossoms on the back. The second one has identical designs on both sides, with split gold and turquoise covering each half, silver leaves on the turquoise, and brown hanabishi (diamond-shaped flowers) on the gold. 

We hope that you enjoyed this peek at our collection! We'll be back next month with another artifact. Have a great May!