Japan · Structural Craft / Paper / Lacquer
京扇子 (Kyō-Sensu)
Kyō-Sensu (京扇子) is the Japanese folding fan tradition of Kyoto — the origin of the folding fan itself (invented in Japan c. 7th century CE and transmitted to China, Korea, and subsequently Europe). The Kyoto fan tradition is distinguished by its extreme technical refinement: a formal Noh or court fan has 16–20 ribs of Japanese cypress, each split to 1–2mm thickness and heat-bent to precise arc, assembled on a single pivot rivet, and covered with washi paper painted in Kyoto style. The defining procedural knowledge is the rib splitting and arc calculation — each of the 16–20 ribs must be split to identical thickness and bent to an arc that, when all ribs are assembled, opens to a perfect semicircle without any rib crossing, gapping, or varying arc radius. This requires calculating and executing 16–20 slightly different arc angles (the outer ribs are longer and must have a larger arc radius than the inner ribs — all ribs must terminate at the same pivot point).
Risk level: Endangered · Japan national Important Traditional Craft Product designation (伝統的工芸品)
Ryukyu Ko-Shishū (琉球古刺繍) is the name given to the embroidery on the few surviving robes of the Ryukyu Kingdom's noro priestesses.
Two textiles made from washi in Shiroishi, Miyagi Prefecture.
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Light, strong everyday objects made by layering washi over a base of paper, bamboo or wood and coating them with persimmon tannin (kakishibu) or urushi lacquer.
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The illumination of manuscripts, calligraphic panels and documents with gold and color.
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A tradition of fine hand bookbinding and hand printing in Rome — centered on the historic printing establishments of the Via del Governo Vecchio and the Vatican typography — producing hand-set letterpress printing, fine binding in full…
Lidded bowls and rounded vessels built from hanji scraps: waste paper is finely torn, soaked in water, mixed with glue and kneaded into a clay-like paste, which is laid onto a mold or frame in repeated layers, each dried before the next,…