Lit. "paintings on screens *shōji 障子." Shōji-e is a term used before the 12th-13th century in reference to paintings on fusuma shōji 襖障子 (see *fusuma 襖), sliding doors and screens, and *tsuitate shōji 衝立障子, free-standing, single-paneled screens. Today the word *fusuma-e 襖絵 is commonly used for shōji-e.
Shōji (now called fusuma) were constructed of a light wooden frame covered with paper batting on to which paper or silk was pasted and decorated. Documents demonstrate that shōji were used as room dividers in *shinden-zukuri 寝殿造 residences of the nobility from at least the 8th century. An early appearance of the term occurs in Saidaiji shizai rukichō 西大寺資材流記帳 of 780, which refers to paintings on both tsuitate and fusuma shōji.
Although there are no extant shōji-e examples from before the 14th century, there are a number of literary references to shōji-e in domestic buildings. Illustrated handscrolls *emaki 絵巻 also include scenes of room interiors with shōji-e. Painted shōji screens were used in the Imperial Palace since the 9th century. For example, *Konmeichi-no-shōji 昆明池障子 was a type of standing screen seen in depictions in the Ban Dainagon ekotoba 伴大納言絵詞 (Illustrated Scrolls of The Courtier Ban Dainagon, late 12th century, Idemitsu 出光 Museum of Art, Tokyo).
After the 11th century, the term shōji-e refers more often to paintings on sliding doors which had become more popular than free-standing screens. 15th-century panel paintings were almost exclusively executed on a paper (not silk). Some shōji-e were created with ink alone (see *kanga 漢画), while the others employed extensive gold backgrounds and bright pigments rendering bold, and vigorous motifs.