波に扇面流し図屏風|Fans upon Waves

Unknown

mid-17th century · Six-panel folding screen; ink, color, and gold leaf on paper · Asian Art

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.

Artist

Unknown

Date

mid-17th century

Medium

Six-panel folding screen; ink, color, and gold leaf on paper

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929