> On Jun 6, 2024, at 6:32 AM, Laura R via Origami > <origami@lists.digitalorigami.com> wrote: > > <snip> > Finally, I want to address the figure of the tsuru. It’s such a powerful > symbol that it’s associated with Japan and origami worldwide. Few resist > using it as a “hook” to attract the public, like in Robert J. Lang’s recent > lecture at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. > Lang knows there’s no direct historical line from the tsuru to a satellite.
Actually, he knows that there is. The tsuru was a powerful image in the Japanese traditional of paper folding, and that tradition informed (and continues to inform) many Japanese practitioners of folding, including Koryo Miura, who developed the folding pattern ultimately used in the Space Solar Flyer, a satellite that flew in 1995. > But he used it anyway because it’s easy to understand. The problem I see is > that, although Lang clarified that origami is a universal art, the “damage” > was already done by choosing a conference title that reinforces the > connection with Japan. And that is because there is a very strong connection with Japan. If you trace the “origami ancestry” of many folders today who they learned from, who they were influenced by—many, if not most, of them have roots at least partially, and some deeply, in the Japanese tradition, even if they had some roots in other traditions. > Perhaps it would have been appropriate during the lecture to spend a couple > of minutes showing a science-interested audience the orthogonal grid of > European paper folding and the 22.5-degree crease pattern of the tsuru, > proving how both traditions developed and persisted independently for > centuries on both continents. As opposed to what I did show, which was Giegher’s Li Tre Trattati from 1639 (European tradition), Guo Shao Lie’s Zhe Zhi Tu Shuo (Chinese tradition), and the Codex Borbonicus (Mesoamerican tradition). > Akira Yoshizawa had significant governmental support to spread his ideas and > art in the West. He was part of a contingent of artists the Japanese Ministry > of Foreign Affairs sent around the world after World War II, with the > explicit intention of fostering friendships and ties between nations. In the > West, Yoshizawa found fertile ground, already cultivated through > correspondence networks since the early 1950s. Additionally, Lillian > Oppenheimer had adopted the word origami, displacing paperfolding in TV > presentations to “sell” it as something exotic and different from children’s > crafts. This repeated use of the word origami, along with Yoshizawa’s travels > and Isao Honda’s bestselling books worldwide, ingrained the idea that origami > was the Japanese art of paper folding, pushing aside and under a rich and > ancient Western folding tradition. > > Origami museums in the West have an obligation to remember this history and > do everything possible to spread it. This I agree with. “Damage” I do not agree with. Robert > Laura Rozenberg, June 6, 2024 > > References: > Hatori Koshiro: History of Origami in the East and the West before > Interfusion. Origami5, Fifth International Meeting of Origami Science, > Mathematics and Education, edited by Patsy Wang-Iverson, Robert J. Lang, Mark > Yim, AK Peters, 2011 > Rozenberg Laura: On the Evolution of the Notation System in Origami: > https://tinyurl.com/3zf6emw9 <https://tinyurl.com/3zf6emw9> . Also: > OrigamiUSA’s The Fold online magazine #50. 2019 > (https://origamiusa.org/thefold/article/evolution-notation-system > <https://origamiusa.org/thefold/article/evolution-notation-system>) > > >> On Jun 6, 2024, at 2:17 AM, Robert Lang <rob...@langorigami.com >> <mailto:rob...@langorigami.com>> wrote: >> >> Cool. The Museo del Origami de Zaragoza (EMOZ) got featured on Atlas Obscura! >> >> https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/origami-museum-zaragoza-spain >> <https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/origami-museum-zaragoza-spain> >> >> We need to point them to Museo del Origami in Colonia, too. >> >> Robert >> >
