Folding Fan

Item number Ed1.199 from the MOA: University of British Columbia.

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Description

A closing fan with thirteen inner ribs of split bamboo and two bamboo parent ribs. Covered with paper on both sides. One side is light blue while the other side is painted in an overall flora (?) design in light blue, dark blue, and white with silver at the top, and the bottom edges. Three Korean characters in black are on the inside of one parent rib. There is a braided grey cotton cord, 14 cm. long (double), strung through the rivet and knotted.

History Of Use

Folding fans were used by members of the official “Yangban” class, and sometimes by women of other classes. Korean folding fans were very well-made, and were exported to China and Japan during the Koryo and Chosun Periods. Some had a large number of fine ribs.
Later fans were modernized and lost their distinctive Korean characteristics. For example, the ribs were cut straight, rather than curving inward at the point where they reached the paper as they had on Korean style fans.