GRANDMASTER OF ORIGAMI

こんにちは! Konnichiwa readers!

Today is also Akira Yoshizawa 101st birthday. Who is Akira Yoshizawa? Huh? You don't know who he is? The origamis' fans must knew who he was. He was an origamist. The father of origami, no the GRANDMASTER OF ORIGAMI. He is the one who raised origami from craft to living art. Awesome! What I knew, he created more than 50, 000 models! A few hundred designs were diagrammed in his 18 books. You know what, he was named Order of the Rising Sun by Japanese emperer Hirohito because the highest honors that can be given to a Japanese citizen. 

origamis of  Akira Yoshizawa

In his childhood, he like to make origami. but, he moved to a factory when he was 13 years old to take a job there. In early 20s, he was promoted from factory worker to technical draftsman. As a part of his new duties, he was responsible for teaching junior employees geometry. Amazingly, the traditional art of origami was used to understand and to communicate geometrical problems.

In 1937, he quit his factory job to continue his flavor, to practice origami full-time. Next two decades, he was lived in poverty and just selling tsudukani (a Japanese preserved condiment, made up from seaweed) door-to-door. 

His origamis then were introduced in many books, the success he achieved for what the hard he faced.

• ATARASHII ORIGAMI GEIJUTSU, Origami Geijutsu-Sha 1954 
• Origami Reader I, Ryokuchi-Sha 1957 
• Dokuhon, Vol.1 (Origami Tokuhon), 1973, ISBN 4-8216-0408-6 
• SOSAKU ORIGAMI (Creative Origami), Nippon Hoso Kyokai 1984, ISBN 4-14-031028-6 
• Dokuhon, Vol.2 (Origami Tokuhon), 1986 
• ORIGAMI DOKUHON II (Origami Reader II), Kamakura Shobo 1986, ISBN 4-308-00400-4    

Dokuhon vol 1 (Origami Tokuhon,) 1973

Sosaku Origami (Creative Origami), Nippon Hoso Kyokai 1984

Dokuhon vol 2 (Origami Tokuhon) 1986

Origami Museum I

In March 1998, Yoshizawa was invited to exhibit his origami in the Louvre museum. He did it willingly, and was not opposed to having his photo taken with other competing origami artists, whom he used to detest in his earlier years; many of his patterns were diagrammed by his professional rivals, which angered Yoshizawa when he was younger.^{[citation needed]} He found that he no longer disliked rival origami folders, and that he now enjoyed their company. 

Akira Yoshizawa died on March 14, 2005 in hospital in Itabashi Ward of complications of pneumonia on his 94th birthday. 

In his honor, Akira Yoshizawa was featured on 14 March 2012 as Google's doodle.


TIAH SAN