Nestled in the heart of Gujo Hachiman, Gifu’s Castle Town, the Gujo Hachiman Art Walk 2025 invites visitors on a cultural journey through galleries, streets, and everyday spaces. Known worldwide for the Gujo Odori dance festival and its historic mountaintop castle, Gujo Hachiman is also becoming a vibrant hub for creativity. This summer, four art galleries—together with cultural venues, cafés, restaurants, and shops—transform the town into a living exhibition.

During the Heian period, the practice of mounting short poems (waka) on small, square or rectangular sheets of ornamented paper became widespread in aristocratic circles. These sheets—often dyed, brushed with mica, or decorated with gold and silver—were then affixed onto larger surfaces such as folding screens (byōbu) or sliding doors (shōji), creating visually rich, multi-poetic compositions. These arrangements were known as shikishigata—literally, “in the form or style of s

In English, the Japanese word shikishi is sometimes translated as “colored paper.” At first glance, it seems to make sense: the kanji characters 色紙 literally mean “color” (色) and “paper” (紙). But in practice, this translation is both misleading and reductive.

This post provides valuable insights into the sizes, Japanese names, and uses of traditional shikishi boards.

A shikishi is a type of traditional Japanese mounting board or card that is often used for calligraphy and artwork.