Studio: international art (54.1912)

Old Japanese Folding Screens

country did not have much influence upon the
prevailing use of metal and cord hinges, since it
was not easy for the Chinese to obtain strong
paper. The custom of substituting paper for silk
and other fabrics on the frame itself was also
followed in other countries, and certain changes
thereafter became noticeable both in the decoration
of screens and the uses to which they were put. In
Japan their use began to be more or less confined
to houses, although they continued to be employed
out of doors until the time of Taiko Hideyoshi,
whose famous collections of hundreds of byobu

were used to line the road on occasions of State
ceremony. As the frames tended to become
slighter with the growth of their use indoors, it
was customary to use a wooden support. Later
on, even for the screens in the house, byobu basami
(basami, derived from kasamu, meaning to place
between or to clasp) made of metal or porcelain
were devised to keep them steady.

At the same time the pictorial designs on the
screens grew larger, so as to cover the entire
surface. When the byobu came to be made in-
variably in pairs, they were painted in such a way