Japanese paper and bamboo decorative fan, KYOTO

The folding fan (sensu (扇子) or simply ôgi (扇)), is a Japanese invention. It spread to Europe where it was adopted by the upper class, via China, around the middle of the 16th century.

If the fan has always been an object of daily use to relieve heat, it finds more particular uses in various traditional Japanese arts such as kabuki theater, traditional nihon buyô dance or humorous rakugo narrative art.

There is also the uchiwa fan (団 扇) which is made of bamboo, most often round in shape and which does not bend.