History of Origami
Encyclopedia
The history of origami followed after the invention of paper, and as a result of paper's use in society. Independent paper folding traditions exist in East Asia and Europe, and it is unclear whether these evolved separately, or had a common source.
" itself is a compound of two smaller Japanese words: "ori", meaning to fold, and "kami", meaning paper. Until recently, all forms of paper folding were not grouped under the word origami, namely "tsutsumi", a kind of wrapper used for formal occasions. Before that, paperfolding for play was known by a variety of names, including "orikata", "orisue", "orimono", "tatamigami" and others. Exactly why "origami" became the common name is not known; it has been suggested that the word was adopted in the kindergartens because the written characters were easier for young children to write. Another theory is that the word "origami" was a direct translation of the German word "Papierfalten", brought into Japan with the Kindergarten Movement around 1880.
Japanese origami began sometime after Buddhist monks carried paper to Japan during the 6th century. The first Japanese origami is dated from this period, and was used for religious ceremonial purposes only, due to the high price of paper.
A reference in a poem by Ihara Saikaku
from 1680, which describes the Origami butterflies used during Shinto weddings
to represent the bride and groom, indicates that origami had become a significant aspect of Japanese ceremony by the Heian period
(794–1185). Samurai warriors
are known to have exchanged gifts adorned with noshi
, a sort of good luck token made of folded strips of paper.
In 1797 the first known origami book was published in Japan, titled "senbazuru orikata". There are several origami stories in Japanese culture, such as a story of Abe no Seimei
making a paper bird and turning it into a real one.
The earliest evidence of paperfolding in Europe is a picture of a small paper boat in Tractatus de sphaera mundi
from 1490. There is also evidence of a cut and folded paper box from 1440. It is possible that paperfolding in the west originated with the Moors much earlier, however it is not known if it was independently discovered or knowledge of origami came along the silk route.
The modern growth of interest in origami dates to the design in 1954 by Akira Yoshizawa
of a notation to indicate how to fold origami models. The Yoshizawa-Randlett standard is now used internationally. Today the popularity of origami has given rise to origami societies such as the British Origami Society
and OrigamiUSA
. The first known origami social group was founded in Zaragoza, Spain, during the 1940s.
The Chinese word for paperfolding is "Zhe Zhi" (摺紙), and some Chinese contend that origami is a historical derivative of Chinese paperfolding.
Friedrich Fröbel, founder of the kindergartens, recognized paper binding, weaving, folding, and cutting as teaching aids for child development during the early 19th century. As the Kindergarten system spread throughout Europe and into the rest of the world, it brought with it the small colored squares that we know of today as origami paper. Josef Albers
, the father of modern color theory
and minimalistic art, taught origami and paper folding in the 1920s and 30s at the famous Bahaus design school. His methods, which involved sheets of round paper that were folded into spirals and curved shapes, have influenced modern origami artists like Kunihiko Kasahara
.
The work of Akira Yoshizawa
, of Japan, a prolific creator of origami designs and a writer of books on origami, inspired a modern renaissance of the craft. He invented the process and techniques of wet-folding
and set down the initial set of symbols for the standard Yoshizawa-Randlett system
that Robert Harbin
and Samuel Randlett
later improved upon. His work was promoted through the studies of Gershon Legman
as published in the seminal books of Robert Harbin
's Paper Magic and more so in Secrets of the Origami Masters which revealed the wide world of paper folding in the mid 1960s.
Modern origami has attracted a worldwide following, with ever more intricate designs and new techniques. One of these techniques is 'wet-folding
,' the practice of dampening the paper somewhat during folding to allow the finished product to hold shape better. Variations such as modular origami, also known as unit origami, a process where many origami units are assembled to form an often decorative whole.
Complex origami models normally require thin, strong paper or tissue foil for successful folding; these lightweight materials allow for more layers before the model becomes impractically thick. Modern origami has broken free from the traditional linear construction techniques of the past, and models are now frequently wet-folded or constructed from materials other than paper and foil. With popularity, a new generation of origami creators has experimented with crinkling techniques and smooth-flowing designs used in creating realistic masks, animals, and other traditional artistic themes.
One of the most famous origami designs is the Japanese crane
. The crane is auspicious in Japanese culture. Japan has launched a satellite named tsuru (crane). Legend says that anyone who folds one thousand paper cranes will have their heart's desire come true. The origami crane (折鶴 orizuru in Japanese) has become a symbol of peace because of this legend, and because of a young Japanese girl named Sadako Sasaki
. Sadako was exposed to the radiation of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima as an infant, and it took its inevitable toll on her health. She was then a hibakusha
– an atom bomb survivor. By the time she was twelve in 1955, she was dying of leukemia
. Hearing the legend, she decided to fold one thousand origami cranes so that she could live. However, when she saw that the other children in her ward were dying, she realized that she would not survive and wished instead for world peace and an end to suffering.
A popular version of the tale is that Sadako folded 644 cranes before she died; her classmates then continued folding cranes in honor of their friend. She was buried with a wreath of 1,000 cranes to honor her dream. While her effort could not extend her life, it moved her friends to make a granite statue of Sadako in the Hiroshima Peace Park: a young girl standing with her hands outstretched, a paper crane flying from her fingertips. Every year the statue is adorned with thousands of wreaths of a thousand origami cranes. A group of one thousand paper cranes is called senbazuru in Japanese (千羽鶴).
The tale of Sadako has been dramatized in many books and movies. In one version, Sadako wrote a haiku
that translates into English as:
Origins and the traditional designs
The Japanese word origami "origamiOrigami
is the traditional Japanese art of paper folding, which started in the 17th century AD at the latest and was popularized outside Japan in the mid-1900s. It has since then evolved into a modern art form...
" itself is a compound of two smaller Japanese words: "ori", meaning to fold, and "kami", meaning paper. Until recently, all forms of paper folding were not grouped under the word origami, namely "tsutsumi", a kind of wrapper used for formal occasions. Before that, paperfolding for play was known by a variety of names, including "orikata", "orisue", "orimono", "tatamigami" and others. Exactly why "origami" became the common name is not known; it has been suggested that the word was adopted in the kindergartens because the written characters were easier for young children to write. Another theory is that the word "origami" was a direct translation of the German word "Papierfalten", brought into Japan with the Kindergarten Movement around 1880.
Japanese origami began sometime after Buddhist monks carried paper to Japan during the 6th century. The first Japanese origami is dated from this period, and was used for religious ceremonial purposes only, due to the high price of paper.
A reference in a poem by Ihara Saikaku
Ihara Saikaku
was a Japanese poet and creator of the "floating world" genre of Japanese prose .-Biography:Born the son of the wealthy merchant Hirayama Tōgo in Osaka, he first studied haikai poetry under Matsunaga Teitoku, and later studied under Nishiyama Sōin of the Danrin School of poetry, which emphasized...
from 1680, which describes the Origami butterflies used during Shinto weddings
Shinto
or Shintoism, also kami-no-michi, is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written...
to represent the bride and groom, indicates that origami had become a significant aspect of Japanese ceremony by the Heian period
Heian period
The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. The period is named after the capital city of Heian-kyō, or modern Kyōto. It is the period in Japanese history when Buddhism, Taoism and other Chinese influences were at their height...
(794–1185). Samurai warriors
Samurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
are known to have exchanged gifts adorned with noshi
Noshi
are a kind of ceremonial origami fold entirely distinct from "origami-tsuki". They are not certificates, but are attached to gifts to express "good wishes". Noshi consists of white paper folded with a strip of dried abalone or meat, considered a token of good fortune.-References:*...
, a sort of good luck token made of folded strips of paper.
In 1797 the first known origami book was published in Japan, titled "senbazuru orikata". There are several origami stories in Japanese culture, such as a story of Abe no Seimei
Abe no Seimei
was an onmyōji, a leading specialist of onmyōdō during the middle of the Heian Period in Japan. In addition to his prominence in history, he is a legendary figure in Japanese folklore and has been portrayed in a number of stories and films....
making a paper bird and turning it into a real one.
The earliest evidence of paperfolding in Europe is a picture of a small paper boat in Tractatus de sphaera mundi
De sphaera mundi
De sphaera mundi is a medieval introduction to the basic elements of astronomy written by Johannes de Sacrobosco c. 1230...
from 1490. There is also evidence of a cut and folded paper box from 1440. It is possible that paperfolding in the west originated with the Moors much earlier, however it is not known if it was independently discovered or knowledge of origami came along the silk route.
The modern growth of interest in origami dates to the design in 1954 by Akira Yoshizawa
Akira Yoshizawa
Akira Yoshizawa was considered to be the grandmaster of origami. He is credited with raising origami from a craft to a living art...
of a notation to indicate how to fold origami models. The Yoshizawa-Randlett standard is now used internationally. Today the popularity of origami has given rise to origami societies such as the British Origami Society
British Origami Society
The British Origami Society is a registered charity , devoted to the art of origami . The Society has over 700 members worldwide and publishes a bi-monthly magazine called British Origami...
and OrigamiUSA
OrigamiUSA
OrigamiUSA is the largest origami organization in the United States, with offices located at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. It was founded in 1980 by Michael Shall, Alice Gray, and Lillian Oppenheimer as the Friends of the Origami Center of America...
. The first known origami social group was founded in Zaragoza, Spain, during the 1940s.
The Chinese word for paperfolding is "Zhe Zhi" (摺紙), and some Chinese contend that origami is a historical derivative of Chinese paperfolding.
Modern designs and innovations
Josef Albers
Josef Albers was a German-born American artist and educator whose work, both in Europe and in the United States, formed the basis of some of the most influential and far-reaching art education programs of the 20th century....
, the father of modern color theory
Color theory
In the visual arts, color theory is a body of practical guidance to color mixing and the visual impacts of specific color combinations. Although color theory principles first appeared in the writings of Leone Battista Alberti and the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci , a tradition of "colory theory"...
and minimalistic art, taught origami and paper folding in the 1920s and 30s at the famous Bahaus design school. His methods, which involved sheets of round paper that were folded into spirals and curved shapes, have influenced modern origami artists like Kunihiko Kasahara
Kunihiko Kasahara
is a Japanese origami master. He has made hundreds of models, from simple lion masks to complex modular origami, such as a small stellated dodecahedron. He does not specialize in what is known as "super complex origami", but rather he likes making simple, elegant animals, and modular designs such...
.
The work of Akira Yoshizawa
Akira Yoshizawa
Akira Yoshizawa was considered to be the grandmaster of origami. He is credited with raising origami from a craft to a living art...
, of Japan, a prolific creator of origami designs and a writer of books on origami, inspired a modern renaissance of the craft. He invented the process and techniques of wet-folding
Wet-folding
Wet-folding is an origami technique developed by Akira Yoshizawa that employs water to dampen the paper so that it can be manipulated more easily. This process adds an element of sculpture to origami, which is otherwise purely geometric. Wet-folding is used very often by professional folders for...
and set down the initial set of symbols for the standard Yoshizawa-Randlett system
Origami techniques
The Yoshizawa-Randlett system is a diagramming system used to describe the folds of origami models. Many origami books begin with a description of basic origami techniques which are used to construct the models. There are also a number of standard bases which are commonly used as a first step in...
that Robert Harbin
Robert Harbin
Robert Harbin was a British magician and writer. He is noted as the inventor of a number of classic illusions, including the Zig Zag Girl...
and Samuel Randlett
Samuel Randlett
Samuel L Randlett is an origami artist who helped develop the modern system for diagramming origami folds. Together with Robert Harbin he developed the notation introduced by Akira Yoshizawa to form what is now called the Yoshizawa-Randlett system. This was first described in Samuel Randlett's Art...
later improved upon. His work was promoted through the studies of Gershon Legman
Gershon Legman
Gershon Legman was an American cultural critic and folklorist.-Life and work:Legman was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania to Emil and Julia Friedman Legman, both of Hungarian/Romanian Jewish descent; his father was a railroad clerk and butcher...
as published in the seminal books of Robert Harbin
Robert Harbin
Robert Harbin was a British magician and writer. He is noted as the inventor of a number of classic illusions, including the Zig Zag Girl...
's Paper Magic and more so in Secrets of the Origami Masters which revealed the wide world of paper folding in the mid 1960s.
Modern origami has attracted a worldwide following, with ever more intricate designs and new techniques. One of these techniques is 'wet-folding
Wet-folding
Wet-folding is an origami technique developed by Akira Yoshizawa that employs water to dampen the paper so that it can be manipulated more easily. This process adds an element of sculpture to origami, which is otherwise purely geometric. Wet-folding is used very often by professional folders for...
,' the practice of dampening the paper somewhat during folding to allow the finished product to hold shape better. Variations such as modular origami, also known as unit origami, a process where many origami units are assembled to form an often decorative whole.
Complex origami models normally require thin, strong paper or tissue foil for successful folding; these lightweight materials allow for more layers before the model becomes impractically thick. Modern origami has broken free from the traditional linear construction techniques of the past, and models are now frequently wet-folded or constructed from materials other than paper and foil. With popularity, a new generation of origami creators has experimented with crinkling techniques and smooth-flowing designs used in creating realistic masks, animals, and other traditional artistic themes.
Sadako and the thousand cranes
Crane (bird)
Cranes are a family, Gruidae, of large, long-legged and long-necked birds in the order Gruiformes. There are fifteen species of crane in four genera. Unlike the similar-looking but unrelated herons, cranes fly with necks outstretched, not pulled back...
. The crane is auspicious in Japanese culture. Japan has launched a satellite named tsuru (crane). Legend says that anyone who folds one thousand paper cranes will have their heart's desire come true. The origami crane (折鶴 orizuru in Japanese) has become a symbol of peace because of this legend, and because of a young Japanese girl named Sadako Sasaki
Sadako Sasaki
was a Japanese girl who was two years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on August 6, 1945, near her home by Misasa Bridge in Hiroshima, Japan. Sadako is remembered through the story of attempting to fold a thousand origami cranes before her death, a wish which was memorialized in popular...
. Sadako was exposed to the radiation of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima as an infant, and it took its inevitable toll on her health. She was then a hibakusha
Hibakusha
The surviving victims of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are called , a Japanese word that literally translates to "explosion-affected people"...
– an atom bomb survivor. By the time she was twelve in 1955, she was dying of leukemia
Leukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...
. Hearing the legend, she decided to fold one thousand origami cranes so that she could live. However, when she saw that the other children in her ward were dying, she realized that she would not survive and wished instead for world peace and an end to suffering.
A popular version of the tale is that Sadako folded 644 cranes before she died; her classmates then continued folding cranes in honor of their friend. She was buried with a wreath of 1,000 cranes to honor her dream. While her effort could not extend her life, it moved her friends to make a granite statue of Sadako in the Hiroshima Peace Park: a young girl standing with her hands outstretched, a paper crane flying from her fingertips. Every year the statue is adorned with thousands of wreaths of a thousand origami cranes. A group of one thousand paper cranes is called senbazuru in Japanese (千羽鶴).
The tale of Sadako has been dramatized in many books and movies. In one version, Sadako wrote a haiku
Haiku
' , plural haiku, is a very short form of Japanese poetry typically characterised by three qualities:* The essence of haiku is "cutting"...
that translates into English as:
- I shall write peace upon your wings, and you shall fly around the world so that children will no longer have to die this way.
See also
- History of paperHistory of paperPaper was invented by the Chinese by 105 AD during the Han Dynasty and spread slowly to the west via Samarkand and Baghdad. Papermaking and manufacturing in Europe started in Spain and Sicily in the 10th century by the Muslims living there at the time, and slowly spread to Italy and South France...
- Mathematics of paper foldingMathematics of paper foldingThe art of origami or paper folding has received a considerable amount of mathematical study. Fields of interest include a given paper model's flat-foldability and the use of paper folds to solve mathematical equations.-Flat folding:The construction of origami models is sometimes shown as crease...
- Chinese paper foldingChinese paper foldingChinese Paper Folding, or Zhezhi , is the art of paper folding that originated in China.The work of Akira Yoshizawa widely popularized the Japanese name "origami"- however, in China, and other Chinese speaking places, the art is referred to by the chinese name, Zhe Zhi...
- David ListerDavid Lister (Origami Historian)David Lister is an eminent British origami historian.He was a founder member of the British Origami Society, writing the constitution and was its president from 1998 to 2002.-Early life:...