folding screen
A portable room divider consisting of multiple hinged panels, often decorated with paintings or calligraphy. Used in traditional Japanese interiors.
I set up a folding screen to partition the room.
A gold-leaf folding screen is on display at the museum.
She set up a folding screen in the corner of the tatami room.
We partitioned off part of the room with a folding screen to make a bedroom.
A famous painter decorated the folding screen with a gold-leaf painting.
間仕切り is a general term for any room partition (walls, curtains, screens), whereas 屏風 refers specifically to a decorated folding screen.
屏風 is the general word for any folding screen, while 金屏風 specifically means one covered in gold leaf, often used for formal or celebratory occasions.
Standard kanji spelling; commonly used in news and everyday contexts.
Rarely used kanji form; the first character is a variant of 屏.
From Chinese 屏風 (píngfēng), literally 'screen wind', referring to a screen that blocks wind. The Japanese reading びょうぶ is a go-on reading of the characters.