In a print by Kuniyoshi (c. 1820) of the battle of Kawanakajima between Uyesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen (fifteenth century), a sword-cut is parried by the war-fan.
In a representation of the same battle by Yoshitora, a dismounted general is directing with a war-fan an attack by spearmen.
In the colour print by Hiroshige II. of Yoshitsune and Benkei, the war-fan also appears.
In the print by Shunsui of Atsumori and Kumagai, the hero, mounted, is plunging into the sea followed closely by his adversary Kumagai, also mounted, brandishing the war-fan as a signal and challenge.[55] Two of the many stories or legends relating to the war-fan may be given.—The first refers to Nasu no Yoichi, an archer, whose clan took the fan as their crest,[56] in allusion to his performance at the battle of Yashima in 1185. ‘When the Taira were driven from Kyoto by the Minamoto in 1182, the Empress Ni no Ama flew with the child-emperor Antoku, to the shrine of Itsukumisha, where thirty pink fans, bearing the design of the sun disc (Hi no Maru) were kept. The head-priest gave one to Antoku, saying that it contained in the red disc the Kami of the dead Emperor Takakura (1169-1180), and would cause arrows to recoil upon the enemy. The fan was accordingly attached to a mast of the Taira ship, on which a court lady is always depicted, and a challenge sent to Minamoto no Yoshitsuné, which was accepted by one of his archers, Nasu no Yoichi, who on horseback rode in the waves, and with a well-directed arrow broke the rivet which held the leaves together, and thus shattered the fan.’
| War Fans, Gun Sen. | Mr. W. Harding Smith. Mr. L. C. R. Messel. |
The second tells of Araki, a Samurai whom Oda Nobunaga wished to kill, summoning him to audience, placing himself in such a position that the neck of the Samurai came in line with the sliding panels separating the audience chamber from the daimio’s room, intending to have the shoji slammed together as the man knelt, and thus decapitate him. Araki, suspecting the trap, promptly laid his iron fan in the groove, jamming the shutters, and thus saving himself.[57]
The Ha uchiwa (jin sen) is a camp-fan originally introduced from China in the seventh century and made of the feathers of the eagle, pheasant, or peacock, the handle usually lacquered red, black, or blue; the interesting example illustrated is formed of eagles’ feathers fixed in a horn handle.
Dancing-fans (Mai ogi) were introduced at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The brins are ten in number, the mount of thick paper, usually bearing a family crest. One of the earliest of these fans is to be seen in the painting of a dancer by Matabei (born 1578), in the Morrison collection (reproduced in Painting in the Far East, Laurence Binyon), the decoration of the mount consisting of a few scattered leaves.
The fan is the most usual accompaniment of the dance, and is generally seen in the hands of the Kagura dancers or of the performers with the Shishi mask. The fan dance, which is more nearly allied to jugglery than to the dance, is said to commemorate the performance of Uzume while alluring the Sun Goddess Amaterasu from the cavern, whither she once retired, plunging the world into temporary darkness by her absence. In this, the fan represents the leaves of the pine-tree, the performer balancing a number on his forehead, nose, mouth, hands and feet.