The origin of Origami

We know very little about the origin of origami.

Some say origami originated in China around 2000 years ago. But it is probably wrong. This opinion is based on the conjecture that origami started right after the invention of paper, for which we have no evidence. The paper of Former Han dynasty shows no trace of origami.

The Chinese character for paper, zhi, originally stood for writing material made of silk. The origin of the Japanese word for paper, kami, is said to be birch tree, kaba, or strips of wood or bamboo, kan. Both of them were also writing material. These suggest that paper was primarily writing material, not folding.

Others say origami originated from Japan in Heian era. Again, it is probably wrong. They refer to a story of Abe-no Seimei who made a paper bird and turned it to a real one, or another story about Fujiwara-no Kiyosuke who sent his ex-girlfriend a fake frog. There is no reason, however, for believing that they folded paper to make them.

In Japan, we use wrapping paper called tatogami or tato. Today we mainly wrap kimono with it. It actually dates back to Heian era. But it is by no means an example of origami, since it is folded just squarely.

We use paper strips, shide or heisoku, and paper dolls, hitogata, in Shinto. They are also old. However, they were never made of paper in ancient Japan. In addition, they are not necessarily folded even now. We can see no relationship between Japanese religion and the origin of origami. The Japanese words for paper and gods have the same spelling, kami. But their pronunciation were different in old Japanese.

We use the word origami from Heian era in Japan. But it originally refers to a form of writing. An origami is a landscape piece of paper folded in half latitudinally. We usually write letters or lists on it. In today's Japan, origami-tsuki (with origami) means authentic because connoisseurs write their appraisal on the origami since Edo era.

We did not call paper folding origami in Japan until Showa era. Origami was called "orisue" or "orikata" in Edo era, and "orimono" from the end of Edo era to the early Showa era.

For more detail please go here.

How to create Crane Origami

This is instruction on how to make crane origami

Boat origami

Now lets make boat origami

Frog Origami

This is an origami of a frog

What is Origami?

What Is Origami?

Wikipedia definition:

Origami ( origami) (from oru meaning "folding", and kami meaning "paper") is the traditional Japanese art of paper folding. The goal of this art is to create a representation of an object using geometric folds and crease patterns preferably without the use of gluing or cutting the paper, and using only one piece of paper.

Origami only uses a small number of different folds, but they can be combined in a variety of ways to make intricate designs. The most well known form is probably the Japanese paper crane. In general, these designs begin with a square sheet of paper whose sides may be different colors or prints. Contrary to most popular belief, traditional Japanese origami, which has been practiced since the Edo era (1603–1867), has often been less strict about these conventions, sometimes cutting the paper during the creation of the design.

Definitions of origami on the Web:

• the Japanese art of folding paper into shapes representing objects (e.g., flowers or birds)
  wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
• Origami is a magic stage illusion with a Japanese theme that was created by Jim Steinmeyer and originally performed by Doug Henning and David ...
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origami_(magic_trick)
• the art of folding paper into decorative shapes, usually from uncut squares.
  www.langorigami.com/info/glossary.php4