Fusuma
Fusuma ( Japanese 襖 ) are sliding screens or sliding doors that serve as room dividers in traditional Japanese houses. They usually consist of a wooden frame that is covered with fabric or paper. The terms Fusuma Shōji and Karakami Shōji or Karakami for short are also in use . They run over the entire width of the wall, with another room as well as a cupboard or a storage room behind it, or they still leave space for a tokonoma .
etymology
While the term Shōji comes from China, the word Fusuma can not be found in either Korea or China and is a genuinely Japanese name. The basic idea was to separate the sleeping places in the imperial palace with sliding doors. The sleeping places are also called Fusuma-dokoro ( 衾 所 ), where Fusuma originally meant futon or bedding.
There is also the assumption that the Kunyomi reading Fusuma of the character 衾 , Onyomi kin , is derived from the term 臥 す 間 fusu ma 'room to lie down'. In any case, it is certain that the character 衾 is the etymological origin of Fusuma.
construction
.jpg)
In old houses the door height is only 1.70 meters. Now that the Japanese are now reaching different body sizes due to a change in their diet, the door height in modern houses is 1.90 meters. On the walls there are wooden strips on the floor and at the level of the top edge of the door, on which the doors slide. Traditionally these rails are waxed , in modern houses a sliding strip made of PVC is attached instead .
The doors themselves consist of a two to three centimeter thick wooden frame that is covered with a layer of cardboard. Some doors are only covered with thin, translucent paper, so-called Shōji . A second rail is only attached to the outer wall, on which heavy wooden doors can be pushed forward, for example during typhoons . Because of the thin walls, old Japanese houses are very noisy.
Fusuma can be opened with a handle, the hikite ( 引 き 手 ).
Fusuma livery
A characteristic feature of the Shoin-zukuri , an architectural style for residential houses especially in the middle of the Muromachi period , is the opulent painting of the room dividers and the Japanese wall screens . Typically, such paintings, Kimpekishō gahekiga ( 金碧障壁画 ), ultramarine particularly using the colors green, white, dark red and black ink on a base coat of gold leaf applied. Kanō Eitoku is considered to be the creator of this painting technique. Famous and excellent examples of this wall painting can be found in Nijō Castle and Nishi Hongan-ji in Kyoto.
Kanō Eitoku created this new style of painting as a commissioned painter for the Ashikaga shogunate ( 足 利 将軍 家 ) through a compromise between the techniques of Chinese painting, Kara-e ( 漢画 ) and the traditional Japanese Yamato-e of the Heian period . While in the Heian period wall painting in aristocratic houses and temples was thematically dominated by historical events and the landscapes of China, Eitoku chose the four seasons, the beauty of nature and landscapes as a motif and thus created a peculiar Japanese style of painting. Somewhat later in the Azuchi Momoyama period , for example, Oda Nobunaga in Azuchi Castle and Toyotomi Hideyoshi in Jurakudai Palace ( 聚 楽 第 ) and Osaka Castle used such fusuma and wall paintings to showcase their power.
Web links
- Fusuma in the Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System (English)