Origami

Origami is the art of folding paper. The word also describes the flat and three-dimensional shapes made by folding. Today, the term is sometimes used for folded works made from other materials, such as metal and cloth. Scientists who study living things also use it to describe folded structures like DNA.

The word origami comes from Japan, but people all over the world have folded paper. No one knows exactly where it began.

The goal of origami is to turn a flat, square sheet of paper into a finished sculpture by folding and shaping it. Modern origami folders usually do not cut, glue, or mark the paper. People who use cuts in their designs often use the Japanese word kirigami.

In Japan, origami is divided into two main kinds. One is stylized ceremonial origami, called girei origami. The other is recreational origami, called yūgi origami. Only recreational origami is generally seen as origami. Ceremonial origami is often called "origata" to set it apart from recreational origami. "Origata" is also one of the old words for origami.

A small number of basic origami folds can be combined in many ways to make detailed designs. The best-known origami model is the Japanese paper crane. These designs usually start with a square sheet of paper, which may have different colors, prints, or patterns on each side. Traditional Japanese origami, practiced since the Edo period (1603–1868), was often less strict about these rules. Sometimes people cut the paper or started with shapes that were not square. The ideas behind origami are also used in stents, packaging, and other engineering work.

Etymology

The word "origami" joins two smaller Japanese words: "ori" (from the verb "oru"), meaning to fold, and "kami", meaning paper. For a long time, not all kinds of paper folding were called origami. Folding paper for play had many other names in Japan, such as "orikata" or "origata" (折形), "orisue" (折据), "orimono" (折物), "tatamigami" (畳紙) and others.

The term is now used in many countries. In some places, people prefer their own words for folding paper for fun, such as zhe zhi in China, jongi jeobgi in Korea and papiroflexia in Spain.

History

Main article: History of origami

Paper folding grew up separately in Europe, China, and Japan. These traditions were mostly separate until the 20th century. By the 7th century, paper had reached Japan from China through the Korean Peninsula. During the Heian period, the Japanese got better at making paper. Folded paper was used for decorations and tools at Shinto shrines, and for wrapping gifts. Over time, these uses became set customs called ceremonial origami. During the Muromachi period, new folding designs were created. Some of them, such as the noshi wrapping, are still used at weddings and celebrations today.

Folding for fun is harder to date. A kozuka decorated with a folded paper crane was made around the end of the 1500s. By the early Edo period, people were enjoying origami for fun. The oldest known book about origami for fun, Hiden senbazuru orikata, was published in 1797. In Europe, a skill called napkin folding became popular in the 1600s and 1700s. When Japan opened its borders in the 1860s, it borrowed ideas from Friedrich Fröbel's kindergarten system, and origami became part of early childhood education. In the early 1900s, Akira Yoshizawa created many new works and invented methods such as wet-folding. His work helped bring new life to the art. Since the late 20th century, mathematics and computers have helped origami grow quickly, and people now share new designs online.

Techniques and materials

Main article: Yoshizawa–Randlett system

Many origami books start by teaching basic origami techniques used to make models. These include valley folds, mountain folds, pleats, reverse folds, squash folds, and sinks. Some starting shapes, called bases, appear in many models. For example, the bird base is an early step in making a flapping bird. Other common bases include the preliminary base (square base), fish base, waterbomb base, and frog base.

Almost any flat material can be folded if it holds a crease. Origami paper, often called "kami" (Japanese for paper), comes in squares from 2.5 cm (1 in) to 25 cm (10 in) or bigger. It is usually colored on one side and white on the other. Simple models can be folded from ordinary copy paper. Heavier papers can be wet-folded to make strong, rounded shapes. Other options include foil-backed paper, which has a thin aluminium foil layer, and Washi, the traditional paper of Japan. Washi is made from plants such as the paper mulberry, bamboo, and hemp. Some folders even use paper money. To help models keep their shape, some papers are backcoated or resized with methylcellulose before folding. Tools can help with harder models. A bone folder, paper clips, and tweezers are useful. A ruler and embosser can help mark the crease patterns.

Types

Origami comes in many types. Some models can move, fly, or be blown up. In action origami, a model moves when a person's hands apply kinetic energy to one part. Action origami first appeared with the traditional Japanese flapping bird. Robert Lang's instrumentalists are another example. Their hands seem to play music when their heads are pulled away. In modular origami, many identical pieces are joined to make one model.

Many of these models are decorative folding balls, such as kusudama. They can be held together with thread or glue. Chinese paper folding is a cousin of origami. It has a similar style called Golden Venture folding, also known as "3D origami." Wet-folding dampens the paper so it can be shaped into gentle curves. Pureland origami uses only simple folds. John Smith developed it in the 1970s to help beginners.

Origami tessellations are patterns of shapes that fill a flat surface with no gaps or overlaps. Ron Resch explored this kind of design. Artists like Chris Palmer have been inspired by the Zilij patterns in the Alhambra. Alex Bateman and Robert Lang use computer programs to create them. Kirigami is the Japanese word for paper cutting. It was common in older origami but is now mostly avoided. Strip folding combines folding and weaving. The Moravian star is one example, with 16 spikes. Teabag folding was developed in 1992 by Tiny van der Plas. It uses small squares of paper, such as a tea bag wrapper. The squares interlock to form rosettes, which are 3 dimensional versions of a 2D design. Teachers of mathematics use these designs to show ideas about symmetry.

Mathematics and technical origami

Main article: Mathematics of paper folding

Origami is connected to some ideas in mathematical study. One question is flat-foldability. It asks whether a crease pattern can be folded flat into a two-dimensional shape. Ideas from paper folding have also helped create new technology, such as ways to fold airbags for cars and stent implants so they can open up later. Another question is about rigid origami. It asks whether a model could still fold if the paper were replaced with sheet metal and the creases were hinges. The Miura map fold is one rigid fold that has been used to open large solar panel arrays on satellites. Paper folding can also make shapes that cannot be made with compass and straightedge constructions, such as angle trisection and doubling the cube.

Technical origami, called origami sekkei in Japanese, is a way of designing models with a planned crease pattern instead of trial-and-error. Designers can plan the basic structure of a model on paper before they fold it. Robert Lang, Meguro Toshiyuki, and others helped develop this method. It allows very complex models to be made, such as centipedes with many legs. The most important part of a crease pattern is how the paper is divided into regions. These are often shown as "circle-packing" or "polygon-packing." Circles fit the most area for a given edge, so they use paper well. Other shapes are also used because they make creases that are easier to find and fold. One popular method, box-pleating, uses squares instead of circles.

Ethics and copyright

Copyright is an important issue for origami designs. The internet makes it easy to copy and sell designs without permission. It is good manners to always credit the original artist and the folder when you show an origami model. Some people say that origami artists usually keep all commercial rights to their designs, but it is unclear how well this can be enforced. The Origami Authors and Creators group was started to protect the copyright interests of origami artists and to help with permission requests.

A court in Japan said that the folding method of an origami model "comprises an idea and not a creative expression, and thus is not protected under the copyright law." The court also said that the folding method is in the public domain, because no one can avoid using the same folding creases or arrows. So it is legal to redraw another author's folding instructions, even if they look similar, as long as the similarities are "functional in nature." Redrawn instructions may be published and even sold without the original author's permission.

Outside of Japan, the word 'origami' means folding paper to make shapes for fun. In Japan, the word has also had other meanings. It can mean the certificate that comes with a Japanese sword or a tea tool. The Hon'ami clan was the authority on judging Japanese swords from the Muromachi period to the Edo period. They answered requests from the shogun, daimyo and samurai. They judged when and by which school a sword was made, whether the writing on it was real, and what it was worth. Then they issued an origami with the results written on it. This led to the Japanese phrase 'origami tsuki' (折り紙付き), which means that something or someone is of very high quality.

The word also referred to a style of old Japanese documents. Paper folded vertically was called 'tategami' (竪紙), while paper folded horizontally was called 'origami', and origami had a lower status. This style of letter began to be used at the end of the Heian period. In the Kamakura period, it was used for complaints, and origami came to mean the complaint itself. During the Muromachi period, origami was often used as a command document or a list of gifts, and it came to mean the list of gifts itself.

In popular culture

Origami appears in many TV shows, movies, books, and games. In the TV series House of Cards, Claire Underwood gives a homeless man some money, and he later returns it folded into the shape of a bird. Claire then starts making origami animals and gives some to Peter Russo for his children. In the movie Blade Runner, Gaff folds origami throughout the film. An origami unicorn he makes is an important part of the story.

In the children's novel The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger, Dwight makes an origami Yoda puppet from Star Wars to give advice to his classmates. Tommy tries to find out whether the puppet can really predict the future. The science fiction story "Ghostweight" by Yoon Ha Lee uses origami as a metaphor for history, and its weapons unfold from flat shapes. The author became interested in dimensions after reading Flatland. On the BBC show QI, it is said that paper folding without cutting or gluing likely began in Germany and reached Japan as late as 1860. However, paper cranes made this way have existed in Japan since the Edo period, which was before 1860. Finally, Paper Mario: The Origami King is a 2020 Nintendo Switch game set in a world themed around origami.