Japanese Traditional Art, Origami, Adored Worldwide

Mr. SHINGU Fumiaki

Origami is a well known aspect of Japanese traditional culture. It is played by folding pieces of colorful paper in creative ways to make many kinds of shapes and objects. The word “origami” is widely known worldwide and is spelt using Roman letters these days. However, the practice of folding pieces of paper to create shapes has existed in many different parts of the world from ancient times, and it has been known simply as paper “folding.”

Interestingly, it was the Japanese government during the Meiji era that gathered large amounts of information about folding pieces of paper from many different cultures and blended them into what is now known today as “origami.” The art was then spread around the world again, this time from Japan, and earned a lot of popularity as the name “origami” became better known. The art of origami is now once again booming all worldwide.

SHINGU Fumiaki is an origami creator who invents and designs new origami creations rather than traditional ones. He runs a website called “Origami Club.” The site consists of different categories of origami ranging from ones that are easy for children to make to more creative origami shapes for adults. The site also contains animations showing how to fold and create the shapes. Because the site is easy to understand, it has many fans spread all around the world.

Shingu previously worked in a design company as a designer. His children often used to practice origami when they were little, but they became crazy for other things after they started elementary school. They eventually stopped. Shingu realized that children become bored when they only make traditional origami shapes such as cranes, airplanes, chairs or boxes.

“I needed to create origami that would never be boring for children, and that would keep their minds active,” Shingu thought. After much trial and error, he began to design new origami shapes that actually have stories associated with them, such as a parent bear and its offspring looking at each other, using one piece of colored paper. At that time Shingu built his website, “Origami Club.” He recalls, “At first when I started the site, I received complaints from people in other countries where it took a long time for them to open the site because the animations took up so much memory. We worked to solve the problem and now we are confident that any computers, even those with slow connection lines, can access it easily.”

The site is presented in three languages, Japanese, Korean and English, and attracts 10,000 visiors a day. The site is used by children learning origami in schools in Australia, Hawaii and Turkey. The site has also been used by Japanese living abroad who are often asked how to fold origami. Shingu receives e-mail messages from many of these Japanese people, thanking him, including one site user who wrote: “I did not bring origami books with me when I went abroad, but it was helpful that I found the site.”

For the purpose of training the brain, recently many adults these days enjoy origami as well.

Origami Club:
www.origami-club.com/en/

Back to List Page