Illustrated Japanese Culture
襖
Fusuma are opaque sliding panels used to divide rooms or close cupboards. A traditional panel has a light wooden core, layers of paper, a paper or cloth face, edging and recessed pulls. Moving the panels changes both the opening and the view of the room’s decoration.
01
A wooden lattice gives a traditional panel its shape. Underlining papers strengthen it and help accommodate differences in movement between the wood and the finished surface. The number and arrangement of layers vary with the panel and its repair history.
Paper or cloth covers the built-up core. Different specialists make the frame, papers, edging and fittings; the mounting craft brings these components together.
The hikite is set into the surface so that fingers can move the panel sideways in its tracks. Pulls may be round or take other shapes, with plain or elaborate decoration. The edging frames the surface and protects its margins.
02
Sliding fusuma can close a room off or open it to the adjoining space. Their positions also change how a painted composition is seen. The track arrangement determines how neighbouring panels pass or overlap.
Fusuma are opaque. Light-transmitting shōji usually have translucent paper on a lattice, while a byōbu is a folding, freestanding screen. In older texts, shōji was also a broad term for partitions, so historical names do not always follow these modern distinctions.
Karakami can carry patterns printed from wooden blocks. Kyoto and Edo developed different practices and markets; Edo makers also used brushes and stencils. Some fusuma are plain, some patterned and others painted, so karakami describes one surface tradition rather than every panel.
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Nara- and Heian-period interiors used folding screens and single-panel barriers. Sliding partitions developed toward the late Heian and Kamakura periods. Fusuma became increasingly important in medieval shoin architecture and later spread through merchant and farming households.
Large-scale wall and partition painting flourished in the Momoyama period, including paintings on gold leaf. Kanō painters continued this work in the Edo period. The grand interiors of temples and palaces represent one use of fusuma, alongside plainer domestic fittings.
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For the 1626 remodelling of Nijō Castle, Kanō Tan’yū led painters of the Kanō school in producing interior decoration. Painted walls and sliding panels work together within each room. The pines and hawks in the fourth room of the Great Hall belong to this wider setting.
Kaiho Yūshō painted clouds, dragons and landscapes for Kenninji’s main hall. His ink paintings offer an alternative to brightly coloured paintings on gold.
The Kenjō no shōji at Kyoto Imperial Palace depict Chinese exemplary ministers and auspicious creatures. The surviving paintings are chiefly Sumiyoshi Hiroyuki’s work of 1792, with some later additions. Painted in colour on silk, they take the form of fusuma despite the older word shōji in their name. The originals survived the 1854 palace fire; reproductions now stand in the hall.
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Old written sheets were sometimes reused as underlining. Documents from Shimoisaka and Naka-isaka villages in Wakayama were found in such layers during dismantling. An ordinary building material can preserve records that were no longer being kept for their text.
Nijō Castle conserves original paintings in controlled conditions and uses reproductions in parts of the palace. During repair, weakened underlying layers can be renewed while the painted surface is preserved.
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Modern production brought more standardised panels and new surface designs. Edo karakami blocks lost in earthquakes and war have also been recreated. Contemporary makers continue to develop patterns as well as work with established ones.
Today’s fusuma may have a wooden lattice, board, cardboard or foam core. Replacement papers and fixing methods need to suit that construction. Follow the product’s instructions, particularly when heat is involved; a treatment suitable for one core may damage another.
Its layered paper or cloth covering over the core.
They strengthen the panel and help accommodate movement between the wood and the finished surface.
A recessed pull used to slide the panel.
No. Their shapes and decoration vary.
Fusuma slide in an installed opening; a byōbu is a folding freestanding screen.
No. Plain and patterned papers are also used.
Both walls and sliding panels, forming room-wide compositions.
Chinese exemplary ministers and auspicious creatures, painted on opaque silk panels. The originals are chiefly from 1792; the panels now installed in the palace are reproductions.
Written sheets were sometimes reused in the underlining layers.
Wood, board, cardboard and foam constructions require compatible materials and methods.