They came in two shapes: the folding fan (ōgi) and the round fan (uchiwa). Specialized shops produced bases made of paper mounted on bamboo ribs, and then images—often in colorful designs—were printed on them. Utagawa Hiroshige, whose work appears on many of the fans shown here, designed more images for this purpose than any other artist. His prolific creativity is reflected in the variety of scenes attributed to him.
These fans were often heavily handled or even worn out by their owners as part of their function. Many of the fan prints in the Art Institute’s collection survive because they were not mounted on bamboo sticks and thus were never used. Japanese print designs also commonly featured depictions of people with fans as well as fan shapes incorporated into images, so examples of both appear in this display alongside fan prints meant for conventional use.
Transitory Beauty: Japanese Fan Prints is curated by Janice Katz, Roger L. Weston Associate Curator of Japanese Art, the Art Institute of Chicago.
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