Woman Holding an Uchiwa
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Format:
- Oban
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
A woman holds a round uchiwa fan — the rigid, unmounted summer fan associated with casual cooling and informal leisure. Unlike the folding fan (sensu), the uchiwa was a purely functional object, less susceptible to decorative elaboration, and its presence in this composition grounds the scene in everyday summer experience. The woman's relationship to the fan — how she holds it, whether she fans herself or pauses — shapes the emotional register of the image.
![A Low Class Prostitute (Gun [teppo]), from the series “Five Shades of Ink in the Northern Quarter" ("Hokkoku goshiki-zumi") by Kitagawa Utamaro](https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/ed82be98-8a83-4163-ccc4-e2f7210cce55/full/843,/0/default.jpg)
c. 1794/95
Color woodblock print; oban
c. 1793
color woodblock print
Woodblock print
Woodblock print
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Woman Holding an Uchiwa was created by Kitagawa Utamaro (喜多川歌麿).
Woman Holding an Uchiwa depicts bijin-ga and fans.
