This is an amazing fact, but the very concept of "origami", which we use today, in reality invented only in 1880. Prior to this, orient paper crafts were called "Orikat" (which literally indicated the "figures that are folded"). Origami is extremely popular in Japan, in many other Asian countries, including China, and this technique today is known to the whole world.
Who and when did the origami come up with?
Origami is a peculiar subspecies of decorative and applied art, the country of origin of which is ancient China. It was here that paper was invented at one time, and this is the main material from which creative figures are created. The name of the technique comes from the Japanese terms "Ori" - "Addition" and "Kami" - paper (sometimes translated as "God"). In essence, origami is a skillful creation of all sorts of figures from a special type of paper for children and adults.
At first, this kind of figurines were used for religious purposes and therefore only monks and representatives of the nobility were able to make them. It was assumed that such crafts should be able to form from paper all people with high position in society. Thus, many centuries ago this occupation was considered prestigious. The emergence of this art made it possible to spread this cultural tradition around the world.
The most stormy development and actively popularization of origami occurred in Japan. The Japanese are already in the time of the Hayene dynasty, which existed from 794 to 1185, often used various paper figures for the implementation of different ceremonies. For example, samurai presented to each other certain symbols of good luck in the form of ribbons from a paper base. Origami were often met at wedding celebrations: on the eve of the event a lot of paper moths were created for newlyweds.
This art in the Middle Ages was also found in other countries, not only asian, but also European.
In Europe, unfortunately, there is no too much information about how the art of the addition of figures from the paper base has developed. However, it is known for certain that, for example, the Arabs began to make origami in the middle of the 6th century, the Maurus brought this technique on the Pyrenean Peninsula in the 9th century. The Germans began to create neat figures in the XV-XVI centuries. In European countries, origami was also used during ceremonies. But truly fashionable in Europe, this original art has become only about the XVII-XVIII centuries, while there were already many classic techniques at that time. In the XIX century, the origami received a new round of mad demand. Friedrich Fabells, creating educational institutions, offered to start using origami to help children develop a little finger motility.
Since the 60s of the 20th century, origami has become a fashionable direction in art. Virtually everywhere, special schools and circles teach Europeans to fold simple and complex figures of people and animals from paper. Then such an original type of art, as the origami of the modular type, was also invented. This technology differed significantly from the classics. In the usual form of the origami figure mostly flat and folded from one paper leaf. In the modular technique, the figure will consist of a certain number of parts, which is inserted into each other in the desired order. As a result, there is a bulk product.
Development of technology
Classic Origami crafts are more likely to look like flat figures - it is usually different animals or items that have only one facial side and cannot be vertically standing on a flat surface. This technique creates cats and bears, snowmen and many other interesting figures. The story states that in each state of the world there are features of this interesting technique, depending on when it came to a specific country and as popularized.
For example, all children in Russia make boats or airplanes from paper for many decades, without suspecting that these are popular figures from the technique of simplified origami.
The most famous are the following techniques for creating creative figures from special paper.
Simplified origami
Simplified origami came up with English Master John Smith. The peculiarity of this technique is that during the formation of figures, only the method of folding "slide" and "valley" is applied. This style is perfect for beginner artisans. There are no complex ideas that are typical for standard equipment. Simplified origami is a technique with which they begin to teach children this kind of Asian art.
Technique "By Pattern"
The pattern is a sweep in the form of a clear drawing, it is on it that will be a future figure (there will be all the existing elements and folds of the future figurines). You will only have to give the shape of the chosen figure. But many specialists still consider this technique difficult for beginners. Thanks to this original method, it is possible to fold the figure itself, and if necessary, to know exactly how it was done. For this reason, patterns are used in the development of modern prototypes.
The technique of "wet" origami
It was invented by a skillful master named Akir Esidzava. He just decided to use not a very large amount of water to give paper material plasticity. Using the liquid, paper figures begin to acquire the desired smoothness of the lines, their features become much more expressive and rigid.
This method should be used for plants or animal figures, as they are considered more complex . In addition, thanks to the technique of "wet" folding, the finished figures look much more naturally. For such a method, special dense paper is used, it is based on special glue. With it, the paper fiber will be better connected with each other.
Kusudama
This is a kind of popular modular origami. The essence of the work is to collect shapes in the form of a bowl of paper parts of the cones. In order for the final figure to be durable, these details are usually stuck together with each other. With this technique, you can create just amazing compositions from paper colors and decorate them the interior of any housing.
Art in modern times
The heyday of the Origami around the world came immediately after the end of the war in 1945, when Origami, together with American soldiers, hit the first in the United States, and already a little later - in many European countries.
By the way, the art similar to origami, sometimes appeared independently in different countries. For example, a school of paper figures in Spain is known, it is associated with the name of Miguel Umu. This school at one time distributed its technique for folding paper figures even to Latin American countries. The inhabitants of Spain have come up with their own methodology for creating classic paper figures, and in addition, invented and fundamentally new (method of creating paper Pathrites).
The art of origami appeared in French territory closer towards the end of the XIX century and was actively used by the magicians - they were on the eyes of the enchanted public, they made a small bird from a sheet of ordinary white paper, which swung wings.
Each country adopted the art of classic origami, taking into account their own national traditions.
In Holland, the creation of paper figures refer to decorative and applied art, it stands there in one row with embroidery and knitting macrame.
In Russia, origami technology is tested as one of the training techniques in kindergartens and schools . Teachers are spent with the kids classes, showing them, how to add various crafts from a special paper base. This type of creativity allows you to develop not only a shallow motorcy, but also thinking, as well as memory, logic.
All traditional origami have a square foundation. However, today you can easily meet such models that fold from the triangle, rectangle, polygon.
Interesting Facts
It is believed that the very first edition of Origami was printed in 1797, it was distinguished by the loud-speaking name "Sembazuka Orikat" ("How to construct 1000 cranes"). The author of the Akisato Rito treaty described in it not so much different ways of forming figures, how much did the emphasis on the cultural traditions of his distant country.
In the Guinness Book of Records, you can find the most unusual achievements related to the origami technique. There is a record for the most complex origami, the most cumbersome figure, a very small model and many other records.
By the way, from the paper base formed by Zhuravlik since 1999 is a symbol of peace all over the world. Recently, the most famous large paper crane was created. Its height exceeded 6 m, he weighed 794 kg. The crane was so huge that he had to collect and demonstrate to the audience at the Big Stadium.
Another experienced origami creation master, Akira Nitia, created the most tiny crane in the world of microscopic paper square with parameters 0.1x0.1 mm. Akire had to carry out this painstaking work with the help of a professional tweezers and a good microscope.
Usually, Japanese figures are created from a special type of paper. Modern masters can easily use the usual wrapping paper for such purposes, sometimes you can find figures from candies from candy. Regular newspaper paper is often used. The most creative gift can be a figurine, neatly folded from the cash banknote.
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