Origami means both its technique and material.
Sometimes it means Origami models. Usually we don't specify words,
and we just don't care about definitions at all, but we enjoy
folding paper at times when we have nothing to do or are bored.
This play-origami is very handy for the children on rainy days
to kill boredom. If it was the same reason or not, I really don't
know, but play origami was very popular among noble people during
the middle of the Edo period.
The most famous Origami models such as cranes, Yakko (Japanese
servant) and ships are accomplished as the most popular models
then.
wRanmazushikixi1734j
This is the oldest origami book of all titled 'Hiden
Senbazuru Orikata'. It means 'The Secret of Folding Cranes',
written by Rokoan Gidou( Gidou is his first name and the Rokoan
is his Penname )@in 1797. He was a Buddhist Priest of the Temple
Choennji in Kuwana. In this book he shows us how to make cranes
and other 49 kinds of different cranes including twin-cranes
or cranes in a herd. There's a poem (kyouka) to go with it.
<Picture of the cover of the 'Hiden Senbazuru Orikata'>
(Photo by Origami Tannteidan, Japan)
'Kayaragusa'was published in 1845 by Kazuyuki Adachi. This is
an encyclopaedia and it contains 232 books. More than ten Origami
models (dolls, birds, plants etc.) are shown in two of them.
In the Edo-period Play-Origami was called Orikata
or Orisue. In the Meiji period, Origami paper was called Orimono,
or Tatamigami, (meaning paper to fold). After a while the Origami
paper was called Origami and from the middle of the Meiji period
the square paper in a bundle of different colors were sold as
'Origami' as it is now in Japan.
