I think the primary goal is to allow Yoshizawa's life work to fall to dust. There are plenty of excellent reasons to do that. For one reason, it ensures that no one will ever be able to fold those models. It's important to guard against that. It's also very important that only 6/1000ths of his creative output be preserved. Otherwise, we might be in danger of more of his creative work being available. Also it's important for people like Joseph Wu to be able to feel very proud about standing in opposition to anyone ever deciphering those models. Otherwise there would be the chance he couldn't feel proud of that.
There are many other reasons never to let Yoshizawa's work see the light of day. Those are just a few of the most important. Be well, Zack On Sun, Jan 12, 2020 at 9:53 PM Lorenzo Lucioni <lorenzo.luci...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi all, Hi Robert, > > three years ago we shortly debated about Yoshizawa works and his thousands > of models which were carefully preserved, boxed and hidden, by him. > I'm wondering if something changed, since 2017. Does anyone know something > about this topic? > > Best, > Lorenzo > > > On Tue, 7 Mar 2017 at 17:10, Robert J. Lang <rob...@langorigami.com> > wrote: > > > Various good points made by Peter, Zack, and Diana. Let me add just a few > > comments. > > > > Zack asks, “Would he really so carefully preserve them, and then desire > to > > keep them utterly unseen and unappreciated after his death, until they > > rotted away?” I think the answer is clearly “no”, because he took great > > care to fold his artwork from archival papers, and packed them carefully; > > his intention was more likely that they would be appreciated, displayed, > > and cared for and that they would NOT rot away. And no one I know of > > suggests “the idea that he regarded these carefully preserved works as > > things to be thrown away in the trash.” That’s a straw man argument. > Rather > > than intending that they be thrown away, he intended that they be > preserved > > forever in their original condition. And having seen the quality of his > > artwork today that he’d folded 30 or more years ago, he’s likely to get > his > > wish. > > > > But his desire that his body of work be preserved and displayed is not > the > > same as desiring that others could fold approximations of them. In the > > world of painting, an artist may want his or her artwork preserved and > > displayed, but not want paint-by-number versions of them made available. > > > > We don’t know, and can’t possibly know, why Yoshizawa refrained from > > diagramming his most impressive works. It could be, as Zack suggests, > that > > he wanted to keep some secrets (and I think that motivation probably > played > > something of a role). It could also be that he felt that even with > > instructions, no one could fold those works as well as he could, and he > > didn’t want to see poor folded versions of his children. > > > > Yoshizawa left his body of work to be managed by his widow, Mrs. Kiyo > > Yoshizawa. Really, all that we know for sure about his wishes was that he > > delegated to *her* how his legacy and artwork was to be handled. And I > can > > say from my limited experience via participating in the book “Akira > > Yoshizawa: Japan’s Greatest Origami Master” ( > > https://www.origamiusa.org/catalog/products/akira-yoshizawa ) she takes > a > > very active and firm role in determining what may or may not be done with > > respect to his artwork. > > > > My participation was writing a foreword; in the foreword I described the > > process of reverse-engineering his Cicada from a CP and step folds that > he > > sent to Gershon Legman back in the early 1960s, which were provided to me > > by Laura Rozenberg, from the collection of her origami museum in Uruguay. > > Reading between the lines of translated missives discussing the foreword > > and my requests to her to show additional imagery, Mrs. Y did not seem > > thrilled with the notion and vetoed some of the imagery I wanted to show, > > but she didn’t outright kibosh the whole article. > > > > So, I rather doubt that she’d support x-raying and re-diagramming, but > the > > appropriate avenue to pursue that would be to ask her, and then abide by > > her wishes. > > > > Robert > > > > > > > > > > -- > Lorenzo Lucioni > Wildenbruchstr. 47 > 40545 Duesseldorf - DE > > +49.1525.9768654 > lorenzo.luci...@gmail.com > -- Zack Brown
