shoji

American  

[shoh-zhee, -jee] / ˈʃoʊ ʒi, -dʒi /

noun

plural

shoji, shojis

1. a light screen consisting of a framework of wood covered with paper or other translucent material, used originally in Japanese homes as one of a series of sliding panels between the interior and exterior or between two interior spaces.

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shoji British  

/ -dʒiː, ˈʃəʊʒiː /

noun

1. a rice-paper screen in a sliding wooden frame, used in Japanese houses as a partition

2. any similar screen

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Etymology

Origin of shoji

1875–80; < Japanese shōji, earlier shaũji < Middle Chinese, equivalent to Chinese zhàngzi fence

Example Sentences

Delicate, sliding shoji screens served as stage curtains for the concerts her mom put on, starring local schoolkids and church friends.

From Seattle Times • Sep. 9, 2022

My grandmother, who would soon be a war widow, recalled the crackle of wooden houses consumed like kindling, how the flames danced as the shoji paper screens caught fire.

From New York Times • Aug. 3, 2021

Paper-paned shoji doors filter natural light within the nearly 6,300 square feet of living space.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 27, 2019

I took an elevator to a Japanese restaurant, where I was escorted to a low table in a private room enclosed by shoji screens.

From The New Yorker • Jul. 30, 2018

At night the perfume crept in to him through crannies of the close-shut amado and shoji, revivifying, to keen agony, his longing for his wife.

From The Dragon Painter by Fenollosa, Mary McNeil