Origami - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

History

This art is originating in Asia, in particular of China and Japan. In China, it is called jiezhi , term which gathers the techniques of folding of paper and Papier cut out, where cutting prevails on folding. The Japanese origami has certainly its origins in the ceremonies, where paper thus folded made it possible to decorate the tables (generally jugs of Saké).

The former practice of the known origami in Religion to date is the Katashiro , representation of a divinity, used during the ceremonies Shinto of the temple Ise.

The historians recently discovered the lost model of the Tamatebako (Pandora's box), an object drawn from a Japanese folk tale the Urashima-Taro, in a book published in 1734, the “Ranma-Zushiki”. It contains two images identified in 1993 by Yasuo Koyanagi like model of Tamatebako. Masao Okamura, a historian of the origami, succeeded in recreating the model, which, contrary to the theory of the traditional origami, implies cutting and joining.

As of the beginning of the Years 1800, Frieddrich Froebel, creator of the nursery schools, recognized that the assembly, braiding, the folding and the cutting of paper were teaching assistances for the development of the children.

Joseph Albers, the father of the modern theory of the colors and art minimalist, taught the origami and the folding of paper in the years 1920 and 1930. Its method consisted in using round sheets of paper folded according to spirals or curves; it influenced the modern artists of origami like Kunihiko Kasahara.

The work of the Japanese Akira Yoshizawa, a prolific creator of models of origami and author of books on the origami, inspired the contemporary rebirth. The modern origami attracts amateurs of the whole world, with designs increasingly more complex and novel methods: the wet folding , which makes it possible the end product to better preserve its form, or constructions of origami modular (or Kusudama), in which several parts are assembled to form a decorative whole.

In 1978, in France, appears the French Mouvement of Plieurs de Papier (MFPP).

In 2006, the American series Prison Station-wagon, made known this term with a larger section of the population.

The Japanese crane

One of represented the most famous origami is the crane of Japan. The crane is an important animal for Japan (a satellite bears even the name of Tsuru (crane)). A legend even says: Whoever folds thousand paper cranes will see its wish exaucé . The crane of origami became a symbol of Paix because of this legend, and a Japanese young girl called Sadako Sasaki. Sadako was exposed, child, with the radiation of the atomic bombardment of Hiroshima. She became then Hibakusha , surviving of the atomic bomb. Having heard the legend, it decided to fold thousand cranes to cure. She died of Leucémie in 1955, at the 12 years age, after having folded 644 cranes. His/her companions of class folded the number remaining and it was buried with the garland of thousand cranes.

His/her friends set up a statue in Granit Sadako representative in the park of the peace of Hiroshima: an young girl being held the opened hands, a flight of paper cranes at the end of the fingers. Each year, the statue is decorated thousands of garlands of thousand cranes (Sembatsuru) .

Since, it entered the tradition to fold thousand paper cranes when a close relation or a friend is seriously sick. Beyond the superstition, this act gets courage and will with the patient, who feels thus surrounded.

The history moving by Sadako was told in many books and films. In a version, Sadako writes a Haïku whose direction is the following:

I will write peace on your wings and you will fly all over the world so that never again the children die thus.

For a Japanese, the origami is more than one art: it is alive culture.

Basic instructions

The origami uses a sheet, in general form Carré E (but it is not always the case), only one does not cut out in theory.

A list of basic techniques is consultable in the chapter Technique of origami. Starting from these elementary folds, valley or mountain, a “musical theory” of folding indexes the figures known as basic (bird bases, bases bomb with water, etc). The origami can take forms as simple as a hat or as a paper airplane, or as complex as a representation of the Eiffel Tower, a gazelle or a Stégosaure, which take more than one hour and half of work. Sometimes the most difficult figures are carried out in paper metallized “paper sandwich” rather than of the plain paper, because that makes it possible to make more folds before the support is not damaged too much to be folded once again.

The origami can represent an animal, a plant or an object but can also represent simple or complex geometrical forms: they are the origamis known as “modular” or the “boxing rings”. They are generally composed of the same basic folding repeated several times and are imbricated one in another to give the final form.

Mathematics and the origami

The origami is a subject of study for the teachers of Mathématiques: the Geometry in the fingers

It is also an object of study of the mathematicians: the “rigidity” is a discipline of mathematics, related to the concept of Disinclinaison in differential Géométrie. It had technical applications: deployment of a solar panel of folded up satellite…

The origami allows the Trisection of the angle (which one knows that it is impossible with the rule and the compass): consequently, it was important to study until where carried out the origami (see: Axiom of Huzita).

Here a simple example: That is to say a paper ABC triangle (it is seen that one can allow diversions of the rule of square paper). To carry out the trisection of the angle has (as one folds a letter into three). To start again with B and C. And surprised! one has just discovered in experiments the Théorème of Morley.

Various exercises of geometry can result from the practical of the origami.

Specific forms

See too

Folding of Chinese paper
Sadako Sasaki
French Movement of Technical Plieurs de Papier
Mathematical of the origami
of origami
Yoshihide Momotani
Nicolas Terry
Didier Boursin

External bonds

Simple: Origami

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