Fans upon Waves
Wave-based imagery and designs, popular among painters of the Rinpa school, are here combined with another favorite image, the folding fan (ōgi). A screen ornamented with fans acted as a sort of miniature museum where many works of art could be viewed at once. The fans often appeared against a background of flowing water, a type of imagery that may have evolved from the medieval custom of casting fans into the water to float upon the surface. Screens painted with the fans-and-stream motif, known as “fans afloat” (senmen nagashi), were often installed in shogunal residences and may have derived from a tale about a Muromachi-period shogun who accidentally dropped a fan from a bridge.
Artwork Details
- 波に扇面流し図屏風
- Title: Fans upon Waves
- Period: Edo period (1615–1868)
- Date: mid-17th century
- Culture: Japan
- Medium: Six-panel folding screen; ink, color, and gold leaf on paper
- Dimensions: 40 3/16 in. × 9 ft. 5 5/16 in. (102.1 × 287.8 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929
- Object Number: 29.100.499
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
More Artwork
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Ogata Kōrin
ca. 1704–9
Japan
early 17th century
Ogata Kōrin
after 1709
Japan
early 17th century
Maruyama Ōkyo 円山応挙
right screen: 1774; left screen: 1793
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