Creating a Tranquil Room With Japanese Screen
A quiet comer in a busy home can become a tranquil personal space with the strategic arrangement of one or more Japanese screens. A key element of Japanese rituals, festivals and interior decor, standing screens establish a boundary between ordinary life and ceremonial or private space. Byobu screens consist of a set of hinged wooden panels encasing rice paper panels in a latticed wooden framework. Ifyou don’t have enough square footage in your apartment or house for a room of your own, create your own miniature refuge with a room divider inspired by traditional Japanese screens.
History
Heavy, ornately painted standing screens originated centuries ago in China, but the Japanese developed the lighter, portable versions most often used in contemporary interior decorating. In Japanese home decor, the single-panel shoji screen traditionally functions as a door or window, while the multi-panel folding byobu – which translates into “protection from the wind” – often serves as a room divider.
Traditionally, the wooden framework was finished with black lacquer, which created a striking, characteristically Asian contrast with the semi-translucent white rice paper. Screens were prized as valuable pieces of artwork, and many were painted and displayed in homes or public buildings. Portable screens have been used as backdrops in traditional Japanese tea ceremonies, processions and Buddhist rituals. Space
The panels of a shoji screen can be arranged to section off an area in a bedroom, living room or one-room studio apartment. The multi-panel construction allows you to create a miniature room in a crowded dwelling by angling the screen’s panels to conceal a bed, chair or meditation corner. Use a single shoji screen as a single, understated partition, or place two shoji screens at complementary angles to define your space.





