| Court Lady’s Fan. ‘Akome Ogi’. | Mr. Wilson Crewdson. |
| War Fan. ‘Gun Sen.’ | Mr W. Harding Smith. |
on the outside, and ornamented with silk threads or strings in five colours; on his sixteenth birthday the Japanese youth attains his majority and receives a present of a fan.
The code regulating all the details of court ceremonial is absolute, and always observed; the use of ivory for the Shaku is confined to the highest ranks, or the most important ceremonial; no noble could use an ivory Shaku on any occasion. The various usages connected with the fan are subjected to similar restrictions.
Ladies carried in place of the Shaku the Hi-ogi.
A fan of special make and design is used by the Empress, and its use is forbidden to any subject. The blades are twenty-three in number, connected with a white silk ribbon. The decoration is confined to the chrysanthemum, pine, orange blossom, plum, or Camellia Japonica. The ribbon rosettes or loops, affixed to the top of the outer blades, are arranged in keeping with the particular flower which is represented on the fan; these have seven long streamers, four feet long, of different colours. The rivet also is of a particular kind—paper string.[50]
Chūkei are fans borne by priests and nobles; these have a redivergence at the ends, and date from the period of the introduction of the folding-fan; they are often painted with the most consummate skill, reflecting the best traditions of Japanese art. Many of these paintings exist; in most cases the leaves have been removed from the sticks and mounted as pictures.
Fabulous stories are extant recounting the marvellous accomplishment of the painters of the earlier epochs; amongst these is an account of Tadahira, who is said to have painted upon a fan a cuckoo which uttered its characteristic note whenever the fan was opened, and of Tsunenori, who drew a lion so life-like that other beasts fled from it.