I want to display a single shikishi (Japanese signing board) nicely
I needed something to hold a shikishi I’d been given, so I searched online and at the home improvement store.
Most products are album-style or clear-pocket holders meant for storing multiple shikishi — not what I wanted. I just wanted to display one nicely.
So I’m going to build a single-shikishi display holder myself.
(For non-Japanese readers: a “shikishi” is a thick, square paper card commonly used in Japan for collecting signatures, messages, or mounted artwork — about 24 × 27 cm. It’s a popular keepsake for sports teams, school clubs, retirement gifts, and so on.)
The Finished Display Holder
Skipping ahead to the finished result.
Acrylic on the front, a thin wood frame around the perimeter.
The acrylic is crystal-clear and looks great.
Plus, any decorative origami glued to the shikishi is now protected from peeling off over time.
Building the Holder
I’m building a holder that takes a single shikishi like the one shown.
I want it to look clean, and I want to protect the glued-on origami from coming loose, so the front face will be acrylic.
Cutting the acrylic
Picked up acrylic sheet at the home improvement store.
2 mm thickness for a bit of rigidity.
Cut the acrylic to “shikishi size + frame margin.”
Use an acrylic scoring knife — score the same line several times…
…then snap it cleanly along the score line.
Building the wood frame
Now the wood frame.
Picked up some thin square stock at the home improvement store.
Cut to length with a hand saw.
For the back panel, thin plywood. Cut it with a utility knife.
Glue the thin square stock to the back panel.
From the front, you get an inner pocket like this — that’s where the shikishi goes.
Shikishi seated in the frame.
Attaching the acrylic to the frame
Last step — attach the acrylic front to the frame.
Four 2 mm screws at the corners.
Drill 2 mm pilot holes through both the acrylic and frame, then run a screw + nut through.
Side view of the assembly:
From the back:
Done!
The thin frame keeping out of the way of the shikishi itself is the part I like most.
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