Fan Design Samples
Overview
Fan design samples were created as marketing tools for deluxe fan makers. While the fan design samples below were likely created in the Taishō and early Shōwa eras (c. 1912-1940), fan design samples date back to the Meiji era. They showed the season's available designs, commissioned from some of the most eminent artists of the day. Once the season was over, the sample fans and books of fans were sold. Most of the samples in my collection do not carry a signature or seal and the artists will be forever unknown, but some famous names do appear on several of the prints, such as the below prints Fish and Reeds, designed by Fukuda Heihachirō [福田平八郎 (1892-1974)], a nihonga painter who was awarded the Order of Culture, and Leaping Fish designed by Yokoyama Taikan [横山大観 (1868-1958)], another famous nihonga artist and Order of Culture winner.
The designs range from Art Deco to traditional genre scenes.
The shape of these prints indicate they were designs for folding fans (sensu 扇子, or ōgi 扇, as they are also known.) While often described as "woodblock prints,"I believe most of these sample designs are hand painted or inked rather than printed, as on at least one sample a brush hair is embedded in the ink/paint and on several others the ink or paint has overlapped the paper edge and bled onto the back of the paper.
Some of the prints carry inventory numbers; some bear a cartouche with the word nambu (literally, "southern region" and possibly the name of a company) written in kanji 南部 or kana なんぶ, and some bear a fan-shaped cartouche with the kanji character 業 ("karma" or simply the character for "industry" or "business") inside it, possibly the trademark of another fan company.