Japanese Fan Etiquette

The Japanese have not, like the Spaniards, a “language of fans,” but an elaborate etiquette governs the design, material and use of fans.

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The Fans of Japan

The art of Japan is a subject of interest to all cultivated people, and women have a constant affection for fans. Mrs. Salway, an English lady, in a recent lecture on “The Fans of Japan,” showed that fans (originally imitated from the palm leaf) were used in Japan upon almost every in life. Warriors went forth to fight bearing an iron fan, upon which a blood red sun was painted, as a shield, and upon the ensign borne by the army fluttered again, a fan. The Japanese have not, like the Spaniards, a “language of fans,” but an elaborate etiquette governs the design, material and use of fans. 

The Empress of Japan has a fan unlike that of any of her court ladies. It is adorned with chrysanthemums, orange and plum blossoms, and from the ends are suspended seven cords of seven colors, the cords having also their special significance. When a boy attains manhood on his 16th birthday, he is presented with a fan. Fans are exchanged also on making an acquaintance or betrothal, and at the New Year. 

In the most ordinary, occasions of life, also, fans are used. There is a fan upon which to hand cake at tea-time, and a fan to blow the fire with. Waterproof fans, too, there are, which ladies dip in water during the hottest weather and cool themselves by the evaporation. Many charming games are played with fans. Besides the fan and butterfly game there is a pastime in which the fan is flung at a small target in a particular manner. This game was illustrated by two Japanese gentlemen present.

Another sport, indulged in by ladies, is to catch fireflies on summer nights with their fans. And equally, popular is a kind of oriental ducks and drakes, in which fans are thrown upon a stream and caused to float for as long. —Colusa Daily Sun, 1893

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