Ancient Craft Provides Burst of Fresh Air With Variety of Fans in Traditional Kyoto

The residents of Kyoto, one of Japan’s loveliest and most tradition-conscious cities, know the importance of maintaining their old shops and preserving the crafts associated with them. One of the city’s most treasured gems is Miyawaki Baisen’an, famous for its fans.

In Japan, fans have been an important part of culture from ancient times to the present. For shoppers, fans are affordable, useful, appealing souvenirs, and there is no place better to learn about them than at Miyawaki Baisen’an.

The shop displays dozens of varieties of fans, each intended for a different function. Traditionally, fans in Japan have been used to express or hide emotions--as symbols of authority (samurai carried fans made of peacock feathers); as weapons in combat (battle fans, known as gunsen or tensen , were made of iron); as love tokens to be exchanged by betrothed couples; in religious rites, tea ceremonies and funerals, and as elegant accessories for kimono-clad men or women. Sumo wrestlers and geishas each have their own style of fans.

And, of course, fans are also used for what most Westerners associate them with: to simply create a breath of fresh air on a hot day. Special fans have been designed so that they can be dipped in water for a cooling effect.

Frequently designed with themes reflecting nature or the seasons, there are two basic types of Japanese fan. Stiff, flat, round fans known as uchiwa were introduced to Japan from China by way of Korea in the 6th Century BC. These fans are made by attaching cardboard to ribs cut from a single piece of bamboo, supposedly the most effective design for moving the air. Uchiwa have often been used as mini-advertising billboards: Decorated with a shop or product’s logo, they are given to loyal patrons as premiums.

Folding fans, known as ogi or sensu , were invented by the Japanese. As the legend goes, a beautiful young widow entering a nunnery folded paper to make a fan to ease the fever of the abbot of the temple. The invention might date back to the reign of Emperor Tenji (AD 661 to 672), but the oldest folding fan in existence is a cypress fan dated 877.

Ogi fans are made with three to 25 ribs cut from bamboo, ivory or precious wood, which may be elaborately carved. Those of sandalwood or other perfumed wood are often perforated to enhance their scent as the fan is moved through the air.

Miyawaki Baisen’an (the name roughly translates to “fan-seller’s hermitage”) was established in 1823 by the Miyawaki family, who came to Kyoto from central Japan. The store, located at Tomino-koji Nishi-iru, Rokkaku-dori, Nakagyo-ku (telephone 075-221-0181), is now the only fan shop to be found in this Kyoto neighborhood, once a fan-making center.

Miyawaki Baisen’an’s original building was burned in a fire that destroyed much of Kyoto in 1864. The present shop, with its deep eaves and slatted second-story windows, is a masterpiece of the old style.

The Miyawakis have maintained their century-old building with great care. Outside, the batari shogi bench folds down each day when the shop opens for business to give customers a place to rest. It folds back up at day’s end to become part of the storm shutters that protect the interior from the elements.

Inside, the shop’s decor dates from a 1902 “modernization.” The later addition of electric lights and air conditioning did not alter the interior’s integrity and elegance.

When you approach Miyawaki Baisen’an, the shop has an almost mysterious air. Gleaming silver, gold and brightly multicolored fan sheaves are obscured and protected from the sun’s damaging rays by the flowing curtains that bear the shop’s name.

Within the main showroom, hundreds of exquisite fans of all varieties decorate the walls and are beautifully displayed in glass cases. The ceiling of a smaller room to the left is covered with fan-shaped original paintings, each created by a famous Tokyo artist of the period, including the extraordinary “tiger fan” by Takeuchi and the “orchid and rock fan” by Tessai.

Behind that room is a Western-style lounge, furnished with carpets and armchairs and decorated with wooden fan panels on the walls. The ceiling is covered with another set of fan paintings, these by famous Kyoto artists of the past.

These are not for sale, but included among the items that may be purchased (priced from about $4 to $2,500) are palm-sized miniature uchiwa (about $25) hand-painted with elegant single motifs, such as a maple leaf or crane. Delicate ladies’ fans in a wide variety of colors and motifs, intended for everyday use, are priced from about $8.

Men’s everyday fans, usually heavier and in more austere colors, are from $12. Large, deep-brown waterproof fans made of paper soaked in persimmon juice cost about $30. Baisen’an’s traditional dance fans (from $150) are large, elaborately decorated works of art with fine paintings of bamboo, leaves and other natural motifs displayed against a field of gleaming gold. Sweet-scented sandalwood fans with beautifully carved ribs are available in men’s and women’s sizes for $250 to $450.

If you aren’t traveling to Kyoto, don’t think beautiful fans are beyond your reach. Although none has quite the same aura of tradition as Miyawaki Baisen’an, several worthy traditional fan shops in Tokyo offer a wide variety of beautiful fans: Bunsendo (1-20-2 Asakusa, Taito-ku, telephone 841-0088) has fans priced from about $10 to $300. Hosendo Kyuami (1-19-6 Asakusa, Taito-ku, 845-5021) specializes in traditional dance fans, priced from $5 to $350. Kyosendo (2-4-3 Ningyocho, Nihombashi, Chuo-ku, 666-7255) has a wide variety priced from $4 to $1,025.

Wan’ya Shoten (3-9 Jimbocho, Kanda, Chiyoda-ku, 263-6771) sells fans for Noh drama, priced from $16 to $430. In addition, you’ll find fans priced from about $5 to $70 at kiosks near temples and other frequently visited spots around town, but these rarely have the quality of the fans sold in the traditional shops.

Prices quoted in this article reflect currency exchange rates at the time of writing.