This talk explores the evolving imagery of the folding fan, focusing on its use and symbolic meaning in the hands of medieval warriors and Edo-period samurai. From talismanic fans believed to be imbued with supernatural efficacy, to icons of ephemerality, the discussion will culminate with an analysis of the striking campaign coat (jinbaori) with tattered fan design in the Weber Collection.

Melissa McCormick, Professor of Japanese Art and Culture at Harvard University specializes in the art and literature of premodern Japan and earned a BA in art history and Japanese language and literature from the University of Michigan, and a PhD in Japanese Art History from Princeton University. After teaching at Columbia University as the Atsumi Assistant Professor of Japanese Art, she moved to Harvard in 2005, where she was promoted to full professor in 2009. Her publications include Tosa Mitsunobu and the Small Scroll in Medieval Japan (University of Washington, 2009), The Tale of Genji: A Visual Companion (Princeton University Press, 2018), and The Tale of Genji: A Japanese Classic Illuminated (2019), which accompanied an exhibition that she co-curated at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

To discover more about the exhibition visit:The Art of Impermanence: Japanese Works from the John C. Weber Collection and Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection.