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History of Origami
The history of origami is under debate. Unlike
other art forms, paper degrades quickly leaving
no artifacts to suggest where origami originated
and who rst invented it. The information listed
here provides a good overview of origami but is
not an authoritative analysis of the subject. For
detailed information regarding the history of paper
folding, consult the works of John Smith, David
Lister, and Koshiro Hatori.

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Textbooks will say that paper was

rst invented in China by Cai Lun
(also written Ts'ai Lun) in 105 A.D.
However, archeological evidence
suggest that paper was invented
even early than this. One can
imagine that if there's paper, then the paper may
have been folded as well. There is no evidence of
this but, if it was true, then paper folding would
have started in China. [Photo: Cai Lun (Ts'ai Lun);
inventor of paper]
That being said, there is very little examples of
origami or paper folding in China. The "yuanbao" is
probably the oldest example: these are paper
folded to look like gold nuggets. The pieces are
burnt as offering to the deceased. It is not clear
when the tradition of folding yuanboa started
(possibly near 1000 AD) but it continues even
today.
Another example of paper folding
in China is Golden Venture Folding
(Chinese Paper Folding or 3D
Origami). Here, small pieces of
paper are folded into triangular units which are

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then assembled into large models. No one knows

when these triangular units were rst made, but
they do appear to be of Chinese origin since they
were introduced to the USA via illegal Chinese
immigrants on the ship, Golden Venture (1993).
Read more

Paper Folding in the Japan

During the 6th century, paper was introduced into
Korea and then into Japan by Buddhist monks
(sometimes attributed to one monk in particular,
named Dokyo). It is in Japan that paper folding
became an art form and evolved into what we
know today as "origami".

In Japan, paper was expensive and not

available to the general public. Paper
and paper folding was limited to
religious rituals and formal
ceremonies. [Photo: Gohei with two strips of Shide]
Some of earliest examples of paper folding (with
cutting) are "Shide"; these are zig-zag shaped
paper used in purication rituals. Shide can be

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attached to straw ropes to designate sacred

locations (Shimenawa), attached to alters, or
attached to a wooden staff and used as
purication wands (Gohei). It should be noted that
Shide were probably made with fabric, but then
later switched to paper. See how to fold Shide
here
In traditional Shinto weddings, paper
butteries were used to adorn sake
(Japanese wine) bottles. These
Mecho

butteries, called Mecho and

Ocho, are probably the earliest form
of representational origami. Mecho

Ocho

(female) & Ocho (male) precede the

paper crane which is synonymous
with current day origami. More about
Mecho & Ocho here.
In Japan, there are rules of etiquette
when it comes to the giving and
receiving of gifts. Paper adornments
were folded in different ways to
symbolize different things. For
example:

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"Origami Tsuki" was a folded piece of

paper that accompanied a valuable
gift and it served as a certicate of
authenticity.
"Noshi" was a folded piece of paper that
accompanied a gift and functioned as a token of
good fortune. More information about noshi here.
"Tsutsumi" was a formal gift wrapper. These
ceremonial folds were simple and symbolized
sincerity and purity. [Photo: Noshi]
There is very little evidence of recreational origami
prior to the 1600's but by the 17th century,
play-origami was prevalent in Japanese culture so
much so that you could nd kimonos decorated
with paper cranes.
This shows a ranma
(decorative wood paneling)

A print showing ranma with

origami models. From mfa;
Enlarge.

with six origami models

including the paper crane, the
classic boat, and a modular
cube (1734, see analysis by

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Koshiro Hatori). These

elements suggest that origami
was well established in Japan
by the 1700's.

The rst book published

about paper folding was
the "Tsutsumi-no Ki" by
Sadatake Ise (1764). It
contained instructions to
fold 13 ceremonial folds
such as the noshi and Tsutsumi described above.
[Image from Tsutsumi-no Ki.]

The rst published book

documenting recreational
paper folding came in 1797
with the book called
Folding of 1000 Cranes
(Senbazuru Orikata). This
book contained brief
instructions on how to fold 49 interconnect cranes.
See originals here and here (Paula Versnick).
[Image from Senbazuru Orikata.]

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Next, a series of books called Window on

Midwinter (Kayaragusa, 1845) was printed. These
books were about Japanese customs and there
are two sections dedicated to paper folding. [Note:
due to an error in translation, these books are
sometimes mistakenly called Kan No Mado.]
There was only one copy of this collection made;
it is currently owned by the Asahi Newspaper in
Osaka.
After this point, origami was well on its way. The
Europeans also practiced paper folding: ideas and
methods started to be mixed and developed until
origami is what we see today.

Paper Folding in Europe

The history of paper folding in Europe is a story in
itself. Most origami historians believe that early
paper folding in Europe developed more-or-less
independently from that of Japan. The main
reason for this is that the origami models found in
Europe tend to have a "grid" crease pattern
(squares, rectangle, diagonals). In contrast, the
ceremonial folds from old Japan tend to have

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judgement folds where the exact location of the

cease is up to personal taste & interpretation. See
Koshiro Hatori's article which compares the
development of origami in the East and West in
the conference proceedings, Origami 5.
Through battle and conquest, the secrets of paper
and paper-making left China in 750 AD and began
their journey into Central Asia and then to Europe.

The earliest published evidence

of paper folding in Europe is
probably from the 1490 printing
of the book "De Sphaera Mundi"
(On the Sphere of the World) by
Johannes de Sacrobosco. In this book is a
woodcut print of two boats, one of the boats looks
very much like the classic origami boat which is
sometimes used as a paper hat. [Photo from here]
This is a (small) picture of a boat and some
historians are not convinced that this is an origami
boat. However, if this is indeed an origami boat,
then it would suggest that paper folding
developed in Europe independent of paper

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folding in Japan because in 1490, Japan would

not have this type of recreational folds.
In Act IV of the play "The Duchess of Mal" by
John Webster (1614), character Bosola refers to
paper prisons which boys use to imprison ies.
"Our bodies are weaker than those paperprisons boys use to keep ies in;"
Historians believe that this is in reference to the
classic Waterbomb model.
In Germany and other parts of
Europe, baptism certicates called
"Patenbriefs" were given to babies
by their godparents. These Patenbriefs were
folded in a 3 x 3 or a 4 x 4 grid. Patenbriefs existed
in the 17th, and 18th century; though, the oldest
ones found on the internet are from the 1750's.
[Patenbrief (1831) 3 x 3 fold with twist closure.]
The next textual evidence of
origami in the west would be a
drawing from a picture-book of a
boy sitting in a paper boat oating
in a tea cup. This image is from
Image from "Hanenpoot".
Image from here.

the book "Hanenpoot" by Willem

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Bilderchijk (1806). The boat is

identied as the traditional
Chinese Junk.
Interestingly, historians think that
the traditional Chinese Junk was

Traditional Chinese Junk

from Origami From Around
the World (Vincente
Palacios).

not invented in China because it is

made with a 4 x 4 grid consistent
with the other origami models
found in European made with the
same windmill base. As well,
there is no evidence of the
Chinese Junk in the history of
paper folding in China or Japan.

By this time, origami was quite

common across parts of Europe.
There is mention of people folding
paper into various shapes such as
kites, boats, and birds. One origami model which is
almost denitely from Europe is "Pajarita" (little
bird). Origami historian, Vicente Palacios, has
accumulated a mass of evidence suggesting that
Pajarita was rst created in Spain. The same
model exists across Europe under different
names.

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You can see Pajarita

in European
paintings from the
1800's such as "The
Merrymakers" by
French painter,
Carolus-Duran (circa
1870). The lady in
black is holding
Pajarita. See more examples here. To this day,
Pajarita is used as the logo for Asociacin
Espaola de Papiroexia (Spanish Paper Folding
Association).

Contemporary Origami
From Europe, origami then spread to South
America and then to North America. In the 1950,
Akira Yoshizana and Sam Randlett developed a
standard set of origami symbols to describe how
to fold paper into models. These symbols
remained essentially the same and is used in
origami diagrams today. [Note: David Lister
suggests that it was Sam Randlett and Robert
Harbin who formalized the use of the origami

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symbols.]
Currently, there are thousands of
origami books, free origami
diagrams on the internet, and
origami videos. The art form
continues to evolve and develop. Origami styles
and techniques include: complex origami,
mathematical origami, modular origami, wet
folding origami, origami tessellations, and more.

To see a timeline, or different perspectives on the

history of origami, please visit these sites:
Joseph Wu: Origami: A Brief History
David Mitchell: Origami Design History
Ks Origami: History of Origami
John Smith: Notes on the History of Origami
Japan Origami Academic Society's History of
Origami in Japan
David Lister: History of Paperfolding: a
German Perspective
David Lister: Old European Origami

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