Peony

The unusual shape and reliatively small size of the folding fan format offered a special challenge to creative artists. Compositions that would otherwise appear quite ordinary achieve a daring originality within the slender curved format. At the same time, the ready availability of fans made it possible for ordinary artists to mass produce and even to forge works, and to append spurious signatures and seals of the great masters. This is a later copy of a work by Suzuki Kiitsu (1796-1858).