Ibasen

Ibasen was founded in 1590 in Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo — operating as a commercial firm during the early Edo period when the newly established capital was developing its distinctive urban culture. The company operated simultaneously as a ukiyo-e publisher — producing woodblock prints of the popular imagery that documented Edo life — and as a fan maker, applying its graphic expertise to the surface design of folding fans and uchiwa.

This combination of printing and fan-making is the defining characteristic of Ibasen's historical identity. The ukiyo-e publishing tradition gave the company access to — and ownership of — an extraordinary archive of Edo-period imagery: landscapes, portraits, theatrical scenes, mythological subjects, seasonal motifs. This archive remains the source material for Ibasen's fan design today, updated and reinterpreted across generations of production but rooted in the visual vocabulary of Edo popular art.

The Edo folding fan differs from the Kyoto folding fan in character. Where Kyo-sensu (Kyoto fans) tend toward refined, subtle aesthetics appropriate for formal contexts — ceremonial use, traditional performing arts — Edo fans reflect the energy and directness of Edo merchant culture: bold imagery, vivid color, confident compositions. The Kuniyoshi Cat Fan series, for example, applies Utagawa Kuniyoshi's celebrated cat-as-human imagery from the mid-nineteenth century to fan surfaces with the graphic confidence characteristic of the Edo popular art tradition.

Ibasen's uchiwa (rigid fans) carry the same graphic tradition: printed or painted imagery on a round or oval rigid fan face, supported by a bamboo or wire frame. The uchiwa is the more vernacular form — distributed at festivals, associated with summer cooling in the traditional domestic setting — and Ibasen produces uchiwa in both traditional imagery and contemporary collaborations.

The Kakishibu (persimmon tannin) Fan and Shikebiki Fan represent specialized products within Ibasen's range: the Kakishibu fan uses a natural persimmon tannin treatment on the paper surface, producing a distinctive warm brown tone that darkens over time and imparts natural water and insect resistance. The Shikebiki fan uses a different papermaking or surface treatment technique that gives the fan face a specific texture and quality.