Robert J. Lang
A GIFT FROM HEAVEN
In 1966, a dinner party was held to celebrate the opening of the Reader’s Digest building in Japan. Many guests from all over the world were invited. On this occasion, Mr Akira Yoshizawa kindly agreed to fold some models of a “Pegasus,” the Reader’s Digest trademark.
Origami pegasuses were placed at the center of each of the 17 dining tables. They were folded from variously colored Japanese paper and were so lively they seemed ready to fly high into the sky. All the guests were fascinated by Mr Yoshizawa’s creations.
It was through this event that I came to know Mr Yoshizawa and learn more about him. His outstanding ability at paper-folding, his strikingly beautiful works, his irrepressible enthusiasm and sincerity for creative origami as well as his peace-loving personality had to be introduced to Digest readers, I believed.
Mr Yoshizawa became interested in origami at the age of four. Brought up in hardship, he nonetheless kept studying and folding paper. He loved nature and observed and studied the movements, skeletal structure and internal organs of live animals. His interest extended to all living creatures on earth. He absorbed and digested all that he studied, then started folding paper with his fingers. He ended up by breathing life into each model with a prayer. He watched and touched his object with utmost care as it changed into a lively creature.
Before computers came into being, he drew detailed diagrams with his own hands and was able to simplify diagrams so that anyone could follow them and fold paper. He understood engineering and was blessed with the ability to pursue artistic beauty.
He was a man of insight and vision. It was in 1969 that Mr L. Stowe, the Digest’s roving editor and a Pulitzer Prize winner, came to Japan and met Mr Yoshizawa. Stowe was deeply impressed and wrote “The Paper Magic of Origami,” thereby introducing Mr Yoshizawa. The article was translated into 13 languages and distributed around the world in 1970.
In 2003, Mr Yoshizawa informed me that he had found the models he had made for his 1955 exhibition in Holland and which had long been thought lost. It was well known that he had been searching for these models for years. They were returned safely to him in 2004 with the cooperation of Mr D. Lister and Mr D. Brill of the British Origami Society. When Mr Yoshizawa opened the box and saw “his beloved children,” he took them out lovingly, one by one, looking so happy that he beamed with joy.
Utsukushii Origami was translated into French and Italian. The beautiful world of Akira Yoshizawa will bring joy and relay heartfelt warmth to all who see his works. He was bound to paper-folding and devoted his entire life to creative origami. He was truly a gift from heaven.
Deep gratitude is also owed to Mrs Kiyo Yoshizawa, who stayed beside him and always lent him her support.
BY HIROKO ICHIYAMA
Former assistant to the Editor-in-Chief of Reader’s Digest in Japan and translator of Origami Museum.
AKIRA YOSH IZAWA BIOGRAPHY
1911 Born in Kaminokawa, Tochigi province, in central Japan. Nurtures a great passion for origami even as a child.
1926 age 15 Receives a degree from the Taimei Technical Institute in Tokyo.
1938 age 27 Begins studying origami on a regular basis while working in an engineering factory.
1950 age 39 Holds a course in creative educational origami for teachers at the request of the Teachers Association of Tochigi province.
1954 age 43 Participates in the seminar “The Arts and Crafts in General Education and Community Life” organized by UNESCO in Tokyo. Publishes Atarashii origami geijutsu [New Origami Art]. Establishes the International Origami Center while actively devoting himself to disseminating the art of origami in Japan and abroad and promoting exchange among aficionados.
1955 age 44 His one-man show at Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum catches the attention of the entire world through the novelty of his creative approach. From now on, he is often the leading figure in exhibitions, both at home and abroad.
1957 age 46 Publishes Origami dokuhon [Origami Reader]. Describes his method for the “One thousand origami cranes” (Senbazuru origami) in a text that receives wide recognition.
1959 age 48 Holds an exhibition at the Cooper Union Museum in New York. Thanks to this exhibition, which traveled to various states within the US, Yoshihara’s knowledge of origami is disseminated.
1963 age 52 Publishes Tanoshii origami [Joyful Origami] for which he is awarded the Mainichi Prize for Culture.
1964 age 53 Discovers the original manuscript of the long sought-after ancient origami text Naniyaragusa (a title based on a reading of the Japanese ideograms although various encyclopaedias refer to it as Kayaragusa) for the Osaka research department of the Asahi shinbun newspaper.
1966 age 55 Is invited by the Japanese Ministry of Culture to teach origami in Oceania and eight European countries, including, in 1968, Italy and Switzerland.
1971 age 60 Receives the ExxonMobil Children’s Culture Award.
1972 age 61 At the request of the Japan Foundation, visits and holds conferences as well as exhibitions of his works in Europe and dozens of other countries around the world.
1974 age 63 Publishes Utsukushii Origami [Beautiful Origami].
1983 age 72 Is conferred the Order of the Rising Sun (5th Class) by the Japanese government in the name of the Emperor for his contribution to the spread of Japanese culture through origami.
1984 age 73 Publishes Sōsaku origami [Creative Origami]
with the Nippon hōsō shuppan kyōkai newspaper. Holds the exhibition “Japanese Origami” sponsored by the Asahi shinbun newspaper at l’Espace Cardin in Paris. Is invited to participate in the “Phenomena” show in Zurich, Switzerland. The Parisian exhibition, once again sponsored by the Asahi shinbun newspaper, moves to Tokyo, where it is hosted by the Matsuya Ginza department store under the title “Creative Origami.”
1986 age 75 Receives the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Prize for his work promoting knowledge of Japanese culture through origami.
1987 age 76 Works actively in Hangzhou, China, on spreading the art of creative origami. Holds an exhibition in Italy at the invitation of the municipality of Milan, and a one-man show and conference at the Japanese Institute of Culture in Rome.
1989 age 78 Participates in an exhibition and conference entitled “Origami from all over the world” in Peru.
1990 age 79 Holds a conference on “Creative Origami” at the Matsuya Ginza department store in Tokyo.
Origami crabs displayed at the exhibition Akira Yoshizawa: The World of Creative Origami, Sano Art Museum, Mishima, 2014.
1991 age 80 Holds an exhibition entitled “Origami Art: Masks” in Tokyo.
1992 age 81 Is commissioned by the Japanese government to make an origami set “Four Seasons in Japan” for the Japanese pavilion at the Seville Expo in Spain, simultaneously exhibited at the International Exposition in Genoa.
1993 age 82 Is invited to the music festival