Fans Floating in Waves
Original Language Title扇面流図屏風
CultureJapanese
DateMomoyama period (1573-1615)
MediumSix-fold screen; ink and color over gold-foil ground on paper
DimensionsOverall: 66 3/4 × 150 inches (169.55 × 381 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust
Object number70-8
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionOne of a pair of six-fold screensGallery LabelThis scene of painted fans floating in waves alludes to popular legends and literature in Japan. In The Tale of Genji, a novel from the early 1000s popular among the elite classes, the nobility send romantic poems to one another on folding fans. Floating fans are also associated with a legend of a traveling shogun (ruler) who accidently dropped a folding fan into a river on a bridge in Kyoto. The scene so captivated bystanders that everyone threw their fans into the waters and watched them float away.
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