Fusuma (襖) are the opaque sliding panels between the rooms of a traditional Japanese house. Each one is a wooden frame covered in paper, and it glides in grooves in the floor and ceiling. Translucent shōji let in light from outside. Fusuma work as the inner walls. They separate one room from the next, and you can slide them aside or lift them out to turn two rooms into one.
Walls that move
A fusuma is a light wooden lattice with thick paper or cloth on both sides. You cannot see through it, so it gives privacy. Unlike a Western door, it does not swing on hinges. It is a sliding door (引き戸, hikido), so it needs no extra space, and you can open it as wide as you like. This makes the Japanese house very flexible. Its inner walls are movable panels, so the floor plan itself can change. Take out the fusuma between two rooms, and you get one large hall for a party. Slide them shut, and you have two private rooms again. The house adapts to the needs of each day.
A surface for art
Fusuma have broad, flat surfaces, so artists began to paint on them. Fusuma-e (襖絵), or fusuma paintings, are among the great treasures of Japanese art. Painters covered the panels of temples, castles and grand houses with pine trees, tigers, landscapes and skies of gold leaf. Whole rooms became painted worlds that surround the viewer. Famous examples survive in Kyoto's temples and in Nijō Castle. In an ordinary home, fusuma are plainer, with a lightly textured paper or a simple pattern. But the idea is the same. A wall can also be a picture, and a room can change shape at a touch.
Words & idioms to take away
Idioms & proverbs to carry away
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引き戸 (hikido): a "sliding door." The word covers all doors that slide instead of swing, and fusuma and shōji are its traditional indoor forms.
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襖絵 (fusuma-e): paintings made right on fusuma panels. This major genre of Japanese art turns the movable walls of a room into one continuous scene.