Folding fan

Folding fan calls “Sensu” in Japanese. Traditionally it calls as “Ougi” in Kyoto. Several born folded the end of one side and on the other side affix a paper or a cloth.

The affixed side will be the face.
A Folding fan uses by dancers and story tellers to express various things such as chopsticks, bowl, glass or cup, Samurai sword, telescope, etc. Normally, folding fan is a goods to enjoy the cool wind but in our general days, public people uses as a prop for expression, too.

Fan

In general, it has fan part and handle. But there is a fan which has a hole on the fan part as a handle. The design and patterns are variable, and some cases you’ll get as free with advertisement of one. For example, you can easily get more than three fans in five minutes on the crossing of Shijo street and Karasuma street during Gion festival of Kyoto.

Originally an fan was made wooden, feathers, hide, leaf, etc. And the way of usage was for ceremony, in state, function, fortune telling, etc but not to enjoy the cool wind. The material and the design was changed by the time and reached to the today’s form with bamboo and paper.

Recently, nice design of Kyoto Fan favorable rated by other countries people, too. And it the amount of the production increased because for commercial advertisement media especially during the summer time. After some consumer electronics became popular, practical aspect demand was not so much important (except festivals) any more but it is still a personable media for companies.