A fan leaf Namban Art paper gilt and polychrome decoration "Procession with Namban figures" nippo-portuguese Momoyama period - (1573-1615)/Edo period (1615-1868) minor faults on the pictorial layer Dimensões (altura x comprimento x largura) - 20 x 44 cm Notes: Provenance: private collection, Lisbon. Acquired from Pedro Aguiar Branco, originating from a private British collection. "The ogi, or folding leaf fan, originated and developed in Japan, although its exact origins remain uncertain. By the late 10th century, folding leaf fans were regularly sent as tribute to China and the Korean peninsula, considered distinct from traditional rigid leaf fans (shan in Chinese) and referred to as "folding leaf fans" or "Japanese fans." Over time, they transcended their practical use in religious rituals (as objects of worship in Shinto or as offerings in Buddhist practices) and in everyday life, becoming portable accessories of great versatility, enjoyed by people of all walks of Japanese society. During the Momoyama (1573–1615) and early Edo periods, ogi were not only practical cooling utensils, but also served as status symbols for samurai and the upper classes. (794–1185), known as kamiogi, featuring sheet of silk or paper glued to a bamboo frame. During this early period, hiogi, made from overlapping thin strips of cypress wood tied together, were worn in the winter, while kamiogi would be worn in the summer. This rare Namban folding fan leaf, although lacking its original bamboo frame, has survived due to its painted decoration. Originally folded into twenty-two parts, the sheet depicts seven male figures in European, probably Portuguese, attire. They all wear wide, baggy trousers, adapted by the Portuguese to the hot, humid Asian climate. Among them, five figures of higher status dress in the more refined court fashion, with their tall hats. The most important figure, protected by a red parasol held by a servant – perhaps an enslaved black man – wears a doublet over a linen shirt with a prominent collar, a short-sleeved robe and a red cape. He is flanked by two other men dressed in the same way, one of whom looks ahead, shielding his eyes to better see what awaits the Portuguese entourage. In the middle, between two figures who walked ahead, another servant holds a closed parasol. The poses of both the nobleman looking ahead and this last servant are codified, and can be found in contemporary Namban screens (nanban byōbu) that depict the arrival of the Portuguese in Japan, such as the pair, from around 1600-1610 in the Museu Nacional de Soares dos Reis, Porto (inv. 864-865 Mob MNSR) – see Carneiro (2009). Painted on a background covered in gold leaf, the figures appear arranged along the fan's leaf as if surrounded by clouds at the upper and lower edges, framed by flowering trees and pines on the left and right, framing the composition. The figures and trees are painted with opaque paint in bright colors, with loose and quick brushstrokes typical of this production. Namban or nanban-jin (literally, “Southern Barbarian”) is a Japanese term of Chinese origin that refers to Portuguese and Spanish merchants, missionaries and sailors who arrived in Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries. Over time, the word “Namban” became associated with lacquerware (nanban makie or nanban shitsugei) and other goods ordered in Japan for both domestic and export markets. These reflect Western tastes and often copy European prototypes or include European iconography, such as depictions of Portuguese traders, officials and missionaries - see Impey, Jörg (2005), Curvelo (2010) and Canepa (2016). While Namban lacquerware for export has been studied and dated according to the different European consumers who ordered it, between the last decades of the 16th century and the middle of the 17th century, Namban-themed objects made for the domestic market, such as our fan, are more difficult to date. Not restricted to the presence of newly arrived Europeans in Japan, the use and predilection for Namban themes, in painted screens, folding fans or other objects for domestic use, continued for a longer period. Namban folding leaf fans are extremely rare. An important example, originally folded into nineteen parts (21.9 x 50.6 cm), belongs to the Kobe City Museum - see Tani, Sugase (1973), p. 63, cat. 13. Painted by Kanō Sōshū (1551-1601), who marked the gold-leaf background with his red seal, the fan probably depicts the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Kyoto, a Japanese-style building consecrated by the Jesuits in 1575. Sōshū belonged to the important Kanō (Kanō-ha) school of painting, responsible for some of the most beautiful and historically important Namban screens that have come down to us. The production of painted folding leaf fans constituted a significant part of the school's production in the 16th century. Some of these fans, painted with colored paint over gold or in a monochromatic style, were never folded, but were placed in albums to be admired like paintings. Although our fan sheet shares the same type of rapid brushstroke as the Sōshū fan in Kobe, the pigments used and the thicker, more opaque painting technique suggest a departure from the typical Kanō school style. It is likely that the appetite for all things foreign, as well as the cosmopolitan consumption of Namban-themed objects, led less refined workshops to produce this type of painted fan. Far removed from the original representations of the remaining Kanō painters in Nagasaki, eyewitnesses of the new European arrivals, the figures painted on our fan are already simplified and somewhat adulterated, resembling those we find on lacquered objects produced for the Japanese market in the early 17th century. These include a writing box (8.7 x 20.7 x 4.0 cm) in the Kobe City Museum - see Tani, Sugase (1973), p. 95, cat. 44 - and a powder puff (15.7 x 13.0 x 6.5 cm) in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (inv. EA1983.243). Arriving around 1543, the Portuguese nanban-jin would arouse the curiosity of the Japanese people, a strange fascination that is reflected in this folding fan leaf." Bibliography: Paula Carneiro, “Biombos Namban. Museu Nacional de Soares dos Reis. Namban screens. Museu Nacional de Soares dos Reis”, in Maria João Vasconcelos, Paula Carneiro (eds.), Biombos Namban. Namban Screens, Porto, Museu Nacional de Soares dos Reis, 2009, pp. 80-92; Teresa Canepa, Silk, Porcelain and Lacquer. China and Japan and their Trade with Western Europe and the New World, 1500-1644, London, Paul Holberton publishing, 2016; Alexandra Curvelo (ed.), Encomendas Namban. Os Portugueses no Japão da Idade Moderna (cat.), Lisbon, Fundação Oriente, 2010; Oliver Impey, Christiaan Jörg, Japanese Export Lacquer, 1580-1850, Amsterdam, Hotei Publishing, 2005; Tani Shin’ichi, Sugase Tadashi, Namban Art. A Loan Exhibition from Japanese Collections, Washington, International Exhibitions Foundation, 1973 Hugo Miguel Crespo, August 2024