{"product_id":"uchiwa-fan","title":"Uchiwa Fan 'Shiraha'","description":"\u003ch2\u003eWhite paper uchiwa fan on a bamboo handle, the flat round fan of summer\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eA round of white paper on a bamboo stick. This is the uchiwa, the flat fan of the Japanese summer, a leaf of pleated white paper stretched over a frame of fine bamboo ribs that fan out from a single handle, with nothing printed on it. It does not fold, it does not open, and it moves more air than any folding fan in the collection because the whole leaf is one surface.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is the plainest object in the shop and one of the most used, and the pleats are the detail: they give the paper its stiffness and its shadow.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe name, Shiraha, is the white leaf, and the fan is one.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe frame is a single length of bamboo split at the top into thin ribs that spread into a fan and are glued between two layers of paper, so the leaf is one piece with the handle. It is light, it is stiff, and it is the way this fan has been made for centuries.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCarry it in the back of an obi, handle down, which is how it is carried at a summer festival, or leave it by the door for the walk to the shop. Over a yukata it is the accessory; on a desk it is the fan you reach for.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe pleats run from the handle outward and catch the light in ridges, so the white fan is never flat white, and the ribs show through the paper as fine lines when it is held up to a window. The handle is a single piece of bamboo, split at the top into the ribs.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBecause nothing is printed on it, it is also the fan for writing on: a name, a poem, a date, in a brush or a marker, is how a plain uchiwa becomes a keepsake at a Japanese summer festival, and the paper takes ink well.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEvery fan in the collection is photographed open on the same pale ground at the same scale, so the pages compare with each other: the large fan is large, the others are the size of a hand and a half. The photograph shows the printed face; the reverse is plain.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKeep it dry; wet paper marks and warps. Store it flat, not leaning, so the leaf stays true. It does not need anything else.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom across a room it is a white circle on a stick. From close the paper shows its pleats, the ribs their lines through it, and the handle its grain. It is the fan for the person who wants the air and not the picture.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"YONAKU","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":59208039334236,"sku":"14:201504125#color2;200467261:203031827#L","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1055\/3386\/6332\/files\/uchiwa-fan-shiraha-1.jpg?v=1790584990","url":"https:\/\/yonaku.com\/products\/uchiwa-fan","provider":"YONAKU","version":"1.0","type":"link"}