障子Shōji (paper screens)

A shoji (障子; shōji, Japanese pronunciation:) is a door, window or room divider used in traditional Japanese architecture, consisting of translucent (or transparent) sheets on a lattice frame. Where light transmission is not needed, the similar but opaque fusuma is used (oshiire/closet doors, for instance). Shoji usually slide, but may occasionally be hung or hinged, especially in more rustic styles.

Shoji are very lightweight, so they are easily slid aside, or taken off their tracks and stored in a closet, opening the room to other rooms or the outside. Fully traditional buildings may have only one large room, under a roof supported by a post-and-lintel frame, with few or no permanent interior or exterior walls; the space is flexibly subdivided as needed by the removable sliding wall panels. The posts are generally placed one tatami-length (about 1.82 metres (6.0 ft)) apart, and the shoji slide in two parallel wood-groove tracks between them. In modern construction, the shoji often do not form the exterior surface of the building; they sit inside a sliding glass door or window.

Shoji are valued for not setting a sharp barrier between the interior and the exterior; outside influences such as the swaying silhouettes of trees, or the chorus of frogs, can be appreciated from inside the house.

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