Byobu are Japanese folding screens that are primarily used to partition a room for privacy. They are usually adorned with art such as landscape paintings or shodo calligraphy. Byobu have been crafted in Japan since the 7th century and several are considered priceless works of art.
Japanese houses are historically low on privacy with rooms joined with fusuma and shoji screens. This made byobu an indispensable tool. Traditional Japanese houses are also built to be reconfigurable with rooms that join in different patterns and futon beds that are stored during the day to clear space. Byobu extend this ability to reconfigure rooms and are sometimes quite large for this reason.
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