1. History of the Crane:
Sadako's story
Sadako Sasaki was two years old when the United States dropped an atomic bomb on her city, Hiroshima, in 1945. At the time of the explosion, she was at home with her mother. Despite being just 1km from the centre of the blast, she managed to survive the immediate effects.
However, 10 years later purple spots started to form on her legs as a result of radiation sickness from the bombing. She was diagnosed with leukaemia, a cancer of the blood. While in hospital, she learnt that according to Japanese legend, if she managed to fold 1000 paper cranes she would be granted a wish.
She started out folding dozens of cranes each day. When she ran out of paper, she used medicine wrappings and whatever else she could find. But then her condition worsened and she could only manage to fold one or two a day. Sadly, she died before reaching her target of 1000 cranes. Her friends folded the remainder after her death.
Sadako now symbolizes the impact of nuclear war. A memorial has been built in Hiroshima to honour her and all other child victims of the nuclear bombings. Her story continues to inspire thousands of people to work for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Japanese paper cranes have become a well-known symbol of the movement for a world without nuclear weapons. Every year thousands of students across the globe fold paper cranes to honour the children who died in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. You could take part in this tradition by sending your own paper cranes to a special peace memorial in Japan.
I found this very interesting as I had seen the origami crane a lot but didn't no it was a crane I thought it was a swan and didn't realise it had such a big history behind it as well as being such a sacred creature in Japan.
1. Get Off the Wheel and Out of the Rut
Doing origami gives your mind and your psyche a much needed break. The process of folding paper forces you to turn your focus to something else, at least for a short time.
Take some stressed-out co-workers to lunch and teach them to make thecrane. Count the miles of smiles…including your own.
2. Improve Focus and Calmness
As reported in the documentary, Between the Folds, Israeli teachers have discovered doing origami improves focus and calmness in children.
Our own observations of young children in our workshops bear this out. They are immediately fascinated by each transformation of the paper.
Try this experiment: Don't tell your kids what the finished model will be.
Notice the effect on their interest and attention span.
A good model for this is the goldfish.
3. Strengthen Math Skills Origami has been shown to enhance children's skill and interest in math. Its hands-on nature makes math more fun.
As you do origami with your kids or students, ask them to describe the different shapes the paper is taking through the process.
Don't be surprised when they see things you didn't and start making up their own models.
4. Boost Memory and Brain Power
There's a growing body of evidence that exercising our minds can delay or prevent the onset of dementia in later life.
In the cover story of the February 22, 2010, issue of Time Magazine, "The Science of Living Longer," it was reported:
| "People can improve their odds of remaining mentally alert by keeping their minds engaged. Learning a new language, picking up a hobby and maintaining a rich network of social connections are all ways to keep brain neurons firing." |
Learning a new origami model makes you think. And when you're done, you have something you created with your own hands. You can enjoy it yourself or share it as gift to someone else.
Doing origami with others adds the social aspect.
Is there a difficult model you gave up on? Try it again. Slow down and really pay attention to each step.
When you've mastered it, teach it to someone else. And, consider sharing a photo. You might learn some additional photography and computer skills as a bonus! Find out more.
5. Gain an Immediate Sense of Accomplishment
Sometimes doing something quick and easy is what you crave. Put down the knitting for a few minutes and make some origami for someone instead of buying a card.
I didn't realise that a craft could be so useful in encouraging such benefits especially in learning maths as a child therefore I thought it was interesting.
3. The Math:
The mathematical side to origami and the practical side of how crease patterns can be used in real situations like airbags, solar panels and dna is incredibly interesting and shows a new side to origami as it can often be seen as just an art craft in which children can play with. I love math and problem solving and seeing this aspect join the arts is something I liked.
4. Crazy Folds: Eric Gjerde
http://www.origamitessellations.com/docs/spread-hexagon-tessellation.pdf
When researching I was really interested in the pattern and complex looking folds but I also felt that this was very unique to my subject matter also.
5. Japanese Writing:
Direction of writing
Main article: Horizontal and vertical writing in East Asian scripts
Traditionally, Japanese is written in a format called tategaki (縦書き), which copies the traditional Chinese system. In this format, the characters are written in columns going from top to bottom, with columns ordered from right to left. After reaching the bottom of each column, the reader continues at the top of the column to the left of the current one.
Modern Japanese also uses another writing format, called yokogaki (横書き). This writing format is horizontal and reads from left to right, just like English.
A book printed in tategaki opens from what a Westerner would call the back, while a book printed in yokogaki opens from what traditionally in Japan would have been considered the back.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_writing_system
Japanese writing was also another aspect I liked as its so different to our language and visually is very interesting. This and also the fact they write down rather than across is also another individual factor.
6. History:
Origami (pronounced or-i-GA-me) is the Japanese art of paperfolding. "Ori" is the Japanese word for folding and "kami" is the Japanese word for paper. That is how origami got its name. However, origami did not start in Japan. It began in China in the first or second century and then spread to Japan sometime during the sixth century.
At first, there was very little paper available so only the rich could afford to do paperfolding. The Japanese found useful purposes for their origami. For example, the Samurai (sa-MURE-ay) would exchange gifts with a form known as a noshi(NO-shee). This was a paper folded with a strip of dried fish or meat. It was considered a good luck token. Also, the Shinto Noblemen would celebrate weddings by wrapping glasses of sake or rice wine in butterfly forms that had been folded to represent the bride and groom.
I had always thought it was a Japanese art form and was intrigued to find out it started right when paper making began in China. I also learnt that it was used by Samurai's as gifts as good luck token.
7. Typography:
I found a lot of unique type forms made from paper folding and thought they were very innovative ideas in creating letterforms.
8. Visual Mediums:
The visual opportunities of Origami is extremely unique and can be shown in many different ways on different mediums and be very eye catching.
9. Yoshizawa–Randlett system:
The Yoshizawa–Randlett system is a diagramming system used to describe the folds of origami models. Many origami books begin with a description of basic origami techniques which are used to construct the models. There are also a number of standard bases which are commonly used as a first step in construction. Models are typically classified as requiring low, intermediate or high skill depending on the complexity of the techniques involved in the construction.
This was the first 'language' of Origami and is a unique system in reading how to fold.
10. Beginning:
100AD Paper-making originated in China by Ts'ai Lun, a servant of the Chinese emperor. The art of paper folding began shortly after.
I was shocked that it was so old and also started in China by a servant rather than Japan as thats what its well known for as a craft.
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