- Things such as doors, "fusuma" (sliding doors for partitioning rooms) and "shoji" (sliding screens) which are fitted in openings and windows and can be opened and closed are here referred to as fixtures.Fixtures serve two functions: to serve as openings providing ventilation and views, and connecting one space to another to allow the movement of objects and people; and to serve as "movable walls" partitioning spaces.
- It seems that in early forms of housing, fixtures served to protect the inhabitants from the elements and enemies. Modern fixtures are designed to suppress the entry or spread of noise, heat, light and fire, etc., and there are now products such as soundproof doors, insulating windows and fireproof doors.
- Fixtures can be divided into five broad categories depending on the materials they are made from: wooden fixtures, steel fixtures, aluminum fixtures, plastic fixtures, and glass fixtures.
- Wooden fixtures are made from softwoods such as Japanese cedar, hiba and sawara cypress, Japanese hemlock and fir, and hardwoods such as Japanese cypress, keyaki, maple, Japanese oak, cherry tree and shioji.
Japanese-style fixtures include shoji (paper screens), fusuma (sliding doors), amado (sliding shutters) and koshido (sliding lattice doors), and Western and Chinese-style fixtures include karado (Chinese-style gates), koshikarado (a karado with glass in the upper half) and flush doors.
- Steel fixtures (steel sash) are made of sheet steel or sash bars. Lightweight shaped-steel sash made from banding steel can now also be found. Sash bars are mainly used for window shoji, and curved plate is used for doors, windows, and the frames for entrances /exits. The disadvantage of steel sashes is that they rust.
- Curved plate and sash bars are also used for aluminum fixtures. Aluminum can be press molded and so can be produced in a far wider variety of shapes than steel. Aluminum is a promising material for room
partitions and fixtures, but its vulnerability to alkalies is a drawback.
- Plastic fixtures are widely used for doors. They are light and come in a variety of colors, but are expensive and cause static electricity.
- Glass fixtures provide lighting when closed and are widely used for partitioning living space. A wide variety of kinds of glass are used.
- The following points mainly concern wooden fixtures. It is estimated that there are some 35,000 wooden fixture makers and dealers throughout the country. They can be divided into those who make and supply products to order, and those that handle ready-made goods.
- Wooden fixtures can no longer be produced in major cities due to the pollution created (such as noise, waste dust and chippings, and smoke). A firm in Osaka selling fixtures, for example, has to lay in stocks (even if only one or two pieces) from industrial estates in Wakayama and Tokushima producing furniture.
- Lauan has long been imported through major trading companies from countries such as India, Myanmar, Indonesia, the Philippines, America and Canada for making wooden fixtures. Plywood is imported from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, China, South Korea and Taiwan. Japanese cedar and cypress are of high quality but are scarce and consequently too expensive. Materials produced overseas are cheap, but are sometimes chipped or have patterns that do not match.
- Materials such as plywood and lauan cannot simply be imported, and in countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, China, the Philippines, South Korea and Taiwan, firms have had to lend secondhand equipment, provide technical guidance and commission production of ready-made products. However, the special skills found in Japan are still required to produce products made to order, such as Japanese-style doors, fusuma and shoji, and this explains the continued survival of craftsmen making fixtures in Japan.
- As it takes around ten years of training to become an independent wooden-fixture carpenter, the number of people seeking to become craftsmen has plummeted in Japan. Few people want to do what is called "3K work" in Japan ("kitanai, kiken, kibishii", i.e., dirty, dangerous and hard work), and there is a serious shortage of successors to craftsmen. Even now, Japan is heavily reliant on imports for supplies of products such as flush doors, and this trend appears likely to become more pronounced in the future. Flush doors covered in paper are increasingly being used as fusuma. Flush doors are imported through small trading companies.
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