Ohnishi Tsune Shoten | Kyo Folding Fans: Fragrant Folding Fans That Turn Colors Into Scents

Brand

Connecting the Techniques and Beauty of Folding Fans to the Future One Hundred Years Ahead

Ohnishi Tsune Shoten

• 1918
• Kyoto folding fan
• Rie Ohnishi

History

Folding Fans That Have Accompanied People Without Changing Shape

As a long-established folding fan store in Kyoto with a history of more than 100 years, we have launched fragrances based on our folding fans through crowdfunding, and have engaged in other projects for product development, while making use of our long-established techniques.

Underpinning these efforts is our company policy of “connecting the techniques and beauty of folding fans to the future one hundred years ahead.”

In our production of Kyo folding fans, a division of labor is set up for each operation, such as over-sketch painting, fan surface-processing, and fan slat-assembling.

In addition, each operation is handled by our specialized artisans, which allows us to produce comprehensive high-quality products.

Until the Taisho era, we were engaged in the production of paper hair ties. However, due to the decline of the traditional Japanese hairstyle, our store owner at that time began manufacturing folding fans with the same Japanese paper that was used to produce paper hair ties.

Folding fans are a traditional craft that originated in Kyoto during the Heian period.

For about 1,200 years, folding fans have accompanied people throughout the ages without a change in shape.

They have been loved by people as convenient tools for cooling down, props for traditional performing arts such as Noh plays and traditional Japanese dance, as well as items for various other uses.

Folding fans are also considered to be auspicious as they have an “outward spreading” shape that extends infinitely, and are always carried at events that mark milestones in people’s lives such as ceremonial occasions and the celebration of a child’s third, fifth and seventh years.

Characteristic

Iro ha Nihoheto: A brand of Fragrant Folding Fans Made in Kyoto

Kaza

In the Kyoto dialect, “kaza” means fragrance.

1,200 years ago, people in Kyoto supposedly burned incense to fill their rooms with a pleasant fragrance for repelling evil spirits.

This new fragrance series makes use of the qualities of bamboo that is thinly processed for folding fans. Our containers and fragrances are also manufactured entirely in Kyoto.

Utsushi-ga

These folding fans originated in Japan 1,200 years ago.

In the past, people in the Heian era supposedly burned incense to scent their fans with their favorite fragrances, so as to convey their good will to others.

Using this as inspiration, these folding fans express the changing seasons with their gradation of colors and fragrances.

Simply opening and fanning them will allow their fragrance to spread.

These are a new type of folding fan that you can gently slip into your bag or case to carry around their fragrance freely.

For Customers

Making Folding Fans With a Sensation Similar to Giving a Prayer

Folding fans cannot beat coolers or electric fans.

However, they can always help when you need them closest to you.

We hope our folding fans will be products that will quietly accompany you in life.

With such feelings in mind, we launched the brand “Iro ha Nihoheto,” which proposes items that heal modern people.

In our modern society that is filled of things, we hope to give you more opportunities to come into contact with what is authentic.

Please enjoy our Japanese fragrances that combine traditional techniques with unprecedented ideas.

Award

2018 Won the grand prize at the Kyo-Mono Youth Competition

2019 Won the Kyoto Prefecture Governor Excellence Award at the Twelfth Culture Venture Competition

2019 Certified at the Tenth Chie Business Plan Contest of the Kyoto Chamber of Commerce and Industry