Yukimi-Shoji : Snow-Viewing Screens in a Tokyo mansion

1998, In Niigata prefecture, Urasa was where my working life truly began, and it did not ease me in gently. In the inital days as an Indian national, SNOW was a novelty. It slowly dawned on me that snow was not a special event there, it was the default setting in Japan's snow country. Every morning meant checking snowfall, clearing snow before starting the car, and driving carefully to the Hakkai Creates manufacturing facility with white walls closing in from both sides of the road. Snow shaped my days, and my patience. It was beautiful, yes, but also exhausting. Tokyo, by contrast, treats snow like a rare guest. It arrives once or twice a year, causes mild chaos, trends on social media, and disappears. Here in Tokyo, snow teaches appreciation, because you know it will be gone by tomorrow and sometimes in these 27 years in Tokyo, I have come to "sometimes" miss it again.

So, what is Yukimi Shoji?

Yukimi Shoji is one of those quietly brilliant Japanese ideas that feels obvious only after you live with it. Literally meaning “snow viewing shoji,” it is a traditional sliding door or window where the lower panels are fitted with glass instead of paper. This allows you to sit indoors and enjoy the outside world even in winter, when snow piles up against the house. Unlike regular shoji that turn the outside into a soft blur, Yukimi Shoji keeps you connected to nature at eye level, letting in light, shadows, rain, snow, and the slow passing of seasons. Yukimi Shoji frames the exterior, allowing you to experience beauty without stepping outside.

Yukimi Shoji in a Tokyo mansion?

Yukimi Shoji makes perfect sense in an independent house where the garden, snow, and ground are right there at eye level, but living in a mansion with a balcony changes the equation. I knew I was not going to see piled-up snow or a mossy garden outside my window, yet I still wanted to bring in that Japanese feeling of connection and calm. The balcony became my borrowed landscape, and I dedcided to make a minimalisic Japanese garden view. Brought in some bricks, white pebbles, a pot, some fake lotus flowers etc. 

Setting up the balcony view

I am no pro, so I just brought in a few ore greens, and some wooden boards for the balcony and set them up as below. That completed what I can see from inside the room when the Yukimi Shoji is pulled up. Also added some LED lights at the floor level to light up the balcony at night.