> On 17 Oct 2022, at 00.26, Laura R via Origami
> <origami@lists.digitalorigami.com> wrote:
>
> : “Origami is the Japanese art of paperfolding”. Whether you are versed in
> the history of paperfolding or just an origmi lover, your ideas about this
> subject interest me most. Do you agree with that sentence? You don't? Why?
I normally call it "The Art of Paperfolding".
I acknowledge that "origami" is a Japanese word which incidentally seems to a
candidate for the word used in the largest number of languages. As far I as
know, it was coined as part of the marketing strategy of Lillian Oppenheimer
which turned out to be efficient. I think it is a good word, enabling us to
search for origami across languages. A nice recent touch is the use of the word
"origami" in technical contexts where "folding" would otherwise have been used,
such as space technology or medical aids.
I also acknowledge that Japan seems to be the country where origami is most
widespread, most integrated into the common culture. At least that is the story
I read in popular descriptions of origami, and it seems consistent with the
books I own and the cultural sources I see.
However:
Personally, I don't do origami because "Japan". I do origami because I learned
it from my parents as a child, and continued because it was fun. My first book
was a Danish translation of Harbin's Origami 1. Neither my parents nor I have
ever been to Japan.
Denmark has an old tradition for origami where we learn it as children,
enforced by our intake of the Fröbelian Kindergartens created in the mid-1800s.
Incidentally the same influence that Japan took in in the 1890s, and which is
part of the reason why Japanese preschool uses origami.
The oldest know depictions of origami do not seem to be Japanese. The napkin
decorations of the nobles' dinner tables seem to predate that (Joan Sallas may
tell more about that), and The Fold has an article about the Mayans' even
earlier (bark) paper decorations.
Today, yes, there are many rightfully deeply respected Japanese origami
artists, and it was no coincidence that people like Honda, Yoshizawa and
Kasahara appeared in Japan.
But contemporary folders also appeared in Europe, other parts of Asia, and in
the Americas (for some reason I don't hear much about Africa?).
Personally, the most of the great folders I know are from Europe (naturally, I
live there) or the Americas (well, if they write in English, that is one of the
handful of language I understand). Obviously, that is a skewed knowledge.
Still, I am pretty sure that the drivers behind Origami historically have been
and currently are from all over the world.
In conclusion, my take is that "The Art of Paperfolding" is the most respectful
to the actual distribution.
"The Japanese Art of Paperfolding" can be used in Japanese contexts or in
popular renderings meant to appetize people, as long as the more detailed
nuances make it clear that origami really happens and is developed all over the
world, and that historically paperfolding would have been a thing even without
Japan.
Kind regards,
Hans
