Like many of the world’s ancient artistic forms, the earliest origins of Origami can be debated but some say this Japanese art of paper folding was practiced in Japan as early as the sixth century. The word itself is made up of two Japanese words - ori, meaning fold and kami, meaning paper.
Interestingly, the Japanese have a number of words for different forms of paper folding or “paper play” as they whimsically call it. Why origami took off as the generic term is not 100 per cent clear but it may be because it was a direct translation of the German word, papierfalten’ which was introduced to Japan with the arrival of the Kindergarten Movement in the 1880s.
Most who have looked into the history of paper know that the substance was very expensive when it first appeared. The folding of paper, then, was something used for formal occasions, not to be trifled with. Origami Tsuki, for example, was a folded piece of paper that accompanied a valuable gift and it served as a certificate of authenticity. Noshi, on the other hand, was folded paper that accompanied gifts and functioned as a token of good fortune and Tsutsumi was the name given to formal gift wrappers.
A fascinating chap called Dr. Robert J. Lang lives in America where he is both physicist and world-leading origami artist and theorist. He has over 400 designs catalogued and diagrammed and has exhibited in Paris, New York, Boston, San Diego and Tokyo. Robert’s expertise has been called on for applications of origami to engineering problems ranging from air-bag design to expandable space telescopes. Take a look at his amazing website one day - www.langorigami.com [langorigami.com].
Like calligraphy and martial arts, there is thought to be a Zen-like or therapeutic aspect to this wonderful craft. While most people will only go as far as creating the famous crane (bird) in their origami, others produce things as complicated as dragons, complicated insects and vessels.
In the mid-1950s origami took on a more radical role when an 11-year old girl called Sasaki Sadako developed leukaemia as a result of her exposure to radiation during the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Tradition held that if you made a Senbazuru (a thousand paper cranes) and made a wish after completing each one, the wish would come true. Sadako had made only 644 cranes when, sadly, she died. School friends completed the full number to dedicate at her funeral. This inspired the Children’s Peace Memorial in Hiroshima and a statue of Sadako in Seattle, USA.
(See www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/index_e2.html [pcf.city.hiroshima.jp]).
Please Login or Sign up to share, vote, favourite or comment.
