From the National Diet Library and Kyushu University Library. The table below shows its history step by step.
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| Long ago | Paper makers came to Japan from the Asian mainland. “Nihonshoki,” a history book put together in the 8th century, has the oldest record about paper in Japan. Folding paper for rituals and for wrapping gifts probably began soon after paper was first used. |
| Late 1500s to early 1600s | Goto Eijo, a craftsman of that time, is thought to have made a sword handle with a paper crane on it. It was found in 2018. It is the oldest object known with a paper crane picture. |
| 1734 | “Ranma Zushiki,” a design book for window frames, shows folded paper shapes such as a crane, a servant doll and a boat. |
| Edo period | “Hiden Senbazuru Orikata,” said to be the oldest surviving book about origami for play, is published. |
| 1875 | Japan’s first kindergarten opens in Tokyo. Its lessons are modeled on Friedrich Fröbel’s ideas, and paper folding is one of the activities. |
| 1893 | “Shokokumin,” a magazine for children, starts printing origami made by readers. Articles about origami appear often for about three years. |
| 1908 | “Origami Zusetsu,” a guide for teachers, shows both play origami and ceremonial origami. |
| 1954 | Akira Yoshizawa publishes his first book, “Origami Geijutsu” (Origami Art). |
| 1955 | Yoshizawa’s exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam is the first of many abroad. |
Origami is the art of making many kinds of things only by folding. It is so easy that small children and older people can both enjoy it. It is now popular all around the world, and some people think of it as one of the symbols of Japanese culture.
Some traditional models, such as the orizuru (paper crane) and the kabuto (samurai helmet), are called densho origami, or traditional origami. They are said to have been passed down in Japan from old times. A Kyoto Prefecture exhibition page also describes origami as a traditional Japanese craft.
People sometimes sort origami into two kinds. Ceremonial origami is paper folding that follows the rules of rituals and manners. Recreational origami is paper folding for fun. Most origami today is the second kind.
Paper-making came to Japan from the Asian mainland. Paper was precious, so at first it was probably folded for religious things and for wrapping gifts, not for play. In Japan people also made decorations from paper, such as the paper strips called shide on the wand used in Shinto rituals.
For a long time the word “origami” was not widely used. Until the late 1800s, people used words such as orikata and orisue, which also meant the customs of wrapping and decorating with paper. In Japan there has long been a custom of wrapping gifts of money and goods in washi paper. The manners for this were called orikata, and we can still see traces of them in the decorated envelopes used for gifts today.
In the Edo period, the ceremonial folding that had been a secret of samurai families spread to townspeople. It seems that people played with folded paper at terakoya, the schools of the time, too.
Nobody knows exactly when people began to fold paper for fun, because no records of it remain. But there are clues. A sword handle with paper cranes on it, found in 2018, is thought to be the work of Goto Eijo, who lived from the late 1500s to the early 1600s. A design book of 1734 shows a crane, a servant doll and a boat made of folded paper.
A book called “Hiden Senbazuru Orikata” is said to be the oldest surviving book about origami for play. Its “senbazuru” are not a thousand cranes. They are several cranes joined together, folded from one sheet of paper that has been cut. The book shows these shapes with funny poems, and it tells us that origami had become a fine handcraft in the Edo period.
In the Meiji period, factories began to make Western-style paper, so paper became easier to get and origami spread further. But the complex Edo-period models made from strong washi slowly faded, and origami came to be seen more as a child’s game.
A German teacher named Friedrich Fröbel had started a school for young children in 1840 that is known as the first kindergarten in the world. He made learning toys and also an activity called “Das Falten,” which means making shapes by folding paper. Japan’s first kindergarten opened in Tokyo in 1875, and its lessons followed Fröbel’s system. Paper folding came into Japanese schools as part of it.
The kindergarten’s first head, Seki Shinzo, translated “Falten” as “shoshi.” Traditional Japanese models and new models from Germany then mixed together. For example, the sailboat model, also called the “trick boat,” is in Fröbel’s pictures. A children’s magazine of 1893 shows it as a new way to go on from the old twin-boat model.
Magazines also helped origami spread. “Shokokumin,” a magazine for children, printed ways to fold origami sent in by readers. Because it was used in children’s education, many people came to think that “origami is children’s play.”
After World War II, origami grew quickly. Akira Yoshizawa, born in 1911, is known as one of the pioneers of origami as art. In 1954 he published his first book. He held exhibitions in many countries, starting with Amsterdam in 1955, and made origami popular around the world. He also set up the way of showing folds in books, such as the “mountain fold” and “valley fold” marks.
From the 1980s, computers and the Internet helped folders share new ideas, and very complex models appeared. Some folders also found rules in folding. Maekawa’s theorem says that at each point where creases meet in a flat-folded model, the number of mountain folds and valley folds always differ by two. Kawasaki’s theorem is another rule for creases that meet at one point. Mathematicians became interested too.
A paper folded the right way can be strong, and it can move in useful ways. “Miura-ori” was invented by Professor Koryo Miura. It lets a sheet open and close in a single movement, and it folds into a very compact shape. It is used for tourist maps and for the solar panel of a spacecraft launched in 1995.
Origami also has everyday uses. It is said to help keep the brain active, so it is used in care for older people and in rehabilitation, and in elementary schools to help children use their hands and think creatively. Today “Origami” is an international word, and there are origami groups and international meetings in many countries. In Spain, for example, a folded paper bird called a pajarita is the symbol of the Spanish origami association.
There is no single right answer. Talking it over with someone at home is a good way to learn.