Fotos

A quiet walk around the Geisha district in Higashiyama, Kyoto, brought me to this traditional fan shop, and the sign caught my eye. Traditional Japanese shops don't have headboards like western shops, and look just the same as residential houses, so usually have their business name and trade printed on curtains hanging in the doorway, and/or devices such as this, to invite customers.

As mentioned in a previous post, Traditional Art, Kyoto still has a number of workshops producing traditional Japanese art items. Fans are still made by hand in the area around Higashiyama. Individual family businesses specialise in one particular part of the process (making the paper; painting the design on the paper; the carpentry of the spines, etc.).

As I was posting it occurred to me to see how it looked in sepia, to enhance the "traditional" theme, so I've posted a sepia version to the workshop.