Window Treatments - Japanese Shoji Screens for Interior Decoration

In the Asian interior decoration in the east and west, Japanese Shoji Screen is used as either a room divider or a form of room decoration. A Japanese Shoji Screen is a room divider or door that is made up of rice paper fitted to a wooden frame and are made to be light so as it is easy to move around. These screens can be considered works of art because, as with all Japanese art, these screens were built from the earth’s natural beauty. A Shoji screen was used as doors, room dividers, and as privacy screens. Folding screens, like the Shoji Screen, was first introduced by China. Japanese Shoji screens come in different sizes and each size may serve a different purpose. The use of the screen determined how many folds the screen had.

Shoji Screen Comes in Various Sizes and Designs

Given below are some of the different sizes of Shoji Screens and what they were traditionally used for different occasions. A small two-fold, Shoji screens were used for things like tea ceremonies. Much larger eight-fold screens may have been used as the back drops during dances. Sliding Shoji Screens of all sizes were used for doors or windows, to save space and keep with the basic designs. All sizes and forms of Shoji Screens were used as room dividers, privacy screens, to separate interior and exterior rooms, and even used so as to see the silhouettes of a garden or plants.

Japanese Shoji Screen History

Traditional Japanese Shoji Screens may have had artwork on them, signifying many of the Asian or Japanese traditions, legends, and the history. The art was usually hand painted, and detailed, but still minimal in design, because, all of Japanese art revolves around being simple, natural, and soothing around the nineteenth century, the western world began to take notice of the Japanese Shoji Screens, thus began the modernization of the screen. The work was done mostly at the base of the screens because it was customary that people would sit on the floor, so, naturally the artwork was at eyelevel.
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As the demand of Shoji Screens grew, more people that were amateur started creating screens in Japan. The Shoji Screens were still elegant and still had the Japanese design, but were becoming more like Chinese screens. Newer materials and more colors that are metaphorical are now used to make these screens because the western world is more relaxed when it comes to the home decoration.

Japanese Shoji screen are commonly used as room dividers, but, they are also used to decorate spaces, to hide things, and maybe be used as window covers. The contemporary forms of Shoji Screens are still very light as to allow them to be moved whenever needed.