yonkyoku byōbu 四曲屏風

Also yomaiori byōbu 四枚折屏風. A folding screen with four panels. Before the 12th or 13th century, this type of screen seems to have been rare. In the Kamakura and Muromachi periods, theses screens were displayed in hallways. In the Edo period, it was customary for warriors to use this type of screen when committing suicide. Small screens with four panels began to appear in the waiting rooms, *machiai 待合, of tea houses, *chashitsu 茶室, after the mid-Edo period.