Folding fan

扇子は古くは南北朝時代後半から室町時代はじめにかけて作られるようになりました。 驚いたことに日本が扇子の発祥のようなんです。（詳しくはこちら扇子の歴史）中国かと思っていたんですけど。。。 はじめは団扇（うちわ）のようなものだったらしいんですけど。日本人のアイデアによってコンパクトにたためるようになりました。 このあたりが日本人らしいというか…工夫が上手な日本人のルーツって感じですよね。なんでもコンパクトに作ってしまう…。 遥か数千年たった現在でもビジネスマンが扇子を広げます。すばらしい。 日本の扇子は飾ってもきれいです。 コンパクトなのでお土産に持参するには大変便利。

Fans were originally made in Japan during the late Nanboku-cho period to the early Muromachi period. Surprisingly, Japan seems to be the birthplace of fans (for more details, see here), which is quite astonishing because I had thought it was China... Initially, they were similar to round fans (uchiwa). However, thanks to the ideas of the Japanese, they became compact and foldable. This aspect feels very characteristic of the Japanese, or rather, it reflects the ingenuity of the resourceful Japanese people. They manage to make everything compact... Even today, thousands of years later, businessmen still unfold fans. It's wonderful. Japanese fans are also beautiful as decorations. Due to their compactness, they are incredibly convenient to bring as souvenirs.