We Could All Use a Fan Japanese Fans - sensu & uchiwa by Alan J.
Wiren Imagine a device small enough to fit in your pocket that
can store and transmit messages and pictures, lets you network
with various communities, advertise wealth and social status,
and even lets you play games in your free time. You might be
thinking of a cell phone, but in Japan, centuries ago, there was
already a devise that could do all that and more. In English it
is called a fan, but that word fudges over myriad distinctions
that are important in Japanese culture. The English word, fan,
can refer to a device that keeps your computer cooled, or to
something you can hold in your hand and wave to cool yourself.
Perhaps it is because of how deeply involved the hand held fan
is in early Japanese culture that there is a distinction made
there between the two. The electronic fan is called a senpuuki,
but when you talk about the hand held fan, there are variations
of form, function, and appearance that all have unique, Japanese
names. We can