How do you protect Shoji- paper wall- from a one year old

[cloa513]

Is there a standard way? We just shepherd him away at the moment.

 

[RolandtheHeadless]

Electric dog collar. Run the wire along the base of the wall. When the kid gets too close, ZAP!

 

[Toritoribe]

Is there a standard way? We just shepherd him away at the moment.

Give up to protect shoji, and leave the lower half of the shoji door(s) without paper until he grows up enough to understand he shouldn't break it. Or, use these types of plastic shoji paper.

Home center Yamakishi | Rakuten Global Market: Asahipen super strong plastic shoji paper plain fabric 94cm *2.15m
超強プラスチック障子紙　製品情報｜家庭塗料はアサヒペン

 

[nice gaijin]

I was going to say... encase it in glass?

Shoji paper can be replaced, but a lot of my friends don't even bother when their pets and kids poke holes in it. Unless you're OCD, just embrace the fact that they're going to probably stick a finger or their head through it at some point.

 

[Toritoribe]

Yeah, leave the lower half of the shoji door without any paper, not broken, is the key. Looks somewhat better.

 

[cloa513]

I hate the stuff- antiquated garbage but my wife's father replaced the old broken stuff and now the wife requires me to protected the new white paper thinking it is tissue paper- its way tougher than that. I have no idea how to remove panels but it looks continuous and I wouldn't be permitted anyway. There is a decent hardware store around here part of the Viva Mall- maybe they have hard clear plastic panels.

 

[Mike Cash]

I have no idea how to remove panels but it looks continuous and I wouldn't be permitted anyway.

Usually you lift them up a bit and tilt the bottom away from the track, then lower them.

The larger problem is that "I wouldn't be permitted" nonsense. You need to sack up and roar or your wife and in-laws are going to treat you like her gaijin accessory rather than with the respect and dignity of a full-grown adult husband and father. If you want to take them down, take them down.

 

[Majestic]

I think he might be referring to the individual panels, and not the entire sliding door. In any case, I think there might be some slight confusion because the whole door is usually covered by one sheet of shoji paper. The individual panels aren't papered one-by-one - except in the case where a panel might have been repaired. When a kid pokes a hole in a panel, as is common even in Japan, people either carefully cut out the paper for that specific panel and replace it with new paper. Maybe there will be some leftover material from when the shoji was originally papered, or you can buy "repair shoji paper" at any hardware store. They also sell little band-aid type patches of shoji paper for you to place over finger holes and other slight damages. You often see them in the shape of cherry-blossoms..
In places where shoji are habitually poked and ripped (say, restaurants or ryokan or houses with toddlers) it is very common to see shoji that has been repaired a million times. If you don't like the look of the repaired shoji, you can replace the paper for the whole door in one shot, but it gets to be a very tedious job, which is why houses with kids learn to live:
a) with holes in their shoji
b) with patches in their shoji
c) or if you are obsessive about this, you get to be very good at replacing shoji paper