An introduction to the world’s first fan museum and its extraordinary collections.
“The fan is a curious and complicated article combining utility with artistry. It is a weapon of seduction; it is portable art; it is a fashion statement – hard to categorise, but perfectly described by one particularly enthusiastic 18th-century writer as ‘the noblest invention of the human mind’! From a historical and cultural perspective, its significance cannot be underestimated. In East Asia, for example, where both men and women continue to use fans, they function in all sorts of ways beyond practical: given as celebratory gifts at weddings and births; used in Noh Theatre and Chinese Opera; even Samurai warriors and Sumo officials used fans.”