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Spring 2007
feature: "fusuma"
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Feature: "Fusuma" - Sliding Panels With a feather-light, contemporary feel, sliding fabric panels offer a perfect and popular way to dress floor-to-ceiling windows. They’re all the rage, too, for using as room dividers to maximise both space and style. But did you realise they have their origins in a Japanese craze that started over 500 years ago? If, by some miracle, you could visit a Japanese Zen monastery of the fourteenth century, you’d find plenty of fusuma – wooden-framed room partitions covered with stretched paper or fabric. Decorated simply with brush-and-ink paintings in monochromatic colours, the screens would probably show meditative scenes of misty mountains and groves of bamboo trees. Move on a century, however, and you'd see a change in fashion. If you dropped in for tea with the ruling Samurai warriors, you'd find their castles full of fusuma decorated with jewel-like colours and glinting gold leaf. Screens of this period depicted mythological scenes surrounded by richly coloured trees and plants, blue-tinted pools and craggy rocks. While contemporary taste has turned back to the subtle Zen styles of ancient times, fusuma style has never been more relevant. Today's technology offers you the chance to experience the art of fusuma for yourself. Use them against windows or sliding doors to maximise light and retain privacy. Try them as a space-efficient way to organise an open-plan home. And TradeBlindsDirect is now offering wooden slat sliding panels that evoke the natural materials of a traditional Japanese home - find out more here. |
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