Akira Yoshizawa

[chesslo]

does anyone know where his website is? i have been trying to find it for the whole afternoon.

thanks

[origamimasterjared]

Hahaha. Yeah, um, Akira Yoshizawa does not have a website. And he died a few years ago. When I was in 11th grade, my English teacher cut out the Times article on him and gave it to me.

Yoshizawa did make a number of books though. Check the origami database. You might be able to find something in the local public library.

Also, despite his reputation and praise, I do not worship Yoshizawa. He was important in the spread of modern origami, but I'm not really a huge fan of his works.

[JeossMayhem]

While my mother was in Japan, she made a visit to Ito-Ya, a huge stationary department store to look for paper for me and art supplies for my brother. While she was there they had an exhibit of some of Yoshizawa's works (it'd probably be impossible to show all I guess, haha). She brought me some of the pamphlets and such but I think I left them back home 250 miles away. I'll scan them when I find them.

I don't think I've ever come across one of his books but I've never really been inclined to search for them...

[Dave Brill]

There is a web site for the International Origami Center, Yoshizawa's group.

http://www008.upp.so-net.ne.jp/origami-ios/index.htm

Unlike Jared, I'm a huge fan of Yoshizawa's work (can't you tell?), and his influence on the world of origami (and on me...) has been immense.

I've written lots about him here:
http://brilliantorigami.com/ay.pdf
http://brilliantorigami.com/legacy.pdf
http://brilliantorigami.com/idols.pdf

In my opinion we can learn much more from Yoshizawa than from many young rising origami stars...

Yours

Brilly

[Ondrej.Cibulka]

In my opinion we can learn much more from Yoshizawa than from many young rising origami stars...

I absolutely agree with you. It need no additional comment.

[InsomniacFolder]

To me, Yoshizawa represents soul, for want of a better word. I am fully appreciative of technical modern origami, but it does seem a little cold, clinical at times.

I remember reading Peter Engels about meeting Yoshizawa in "Folding the Universe", a fascinating insight.
He described being shown endless boxes full of models, for seconds at a time, before each was packed away again for another long period of hibernation in their devotedly wrapped storage.
I often wondered what happened to all those models after Yoshizawa-San died. Are they to stay in those boxes, lonely for evermore?

I like Michael LaFosse's reference to Yoshizawa in the instructions for his Big Brown Bat model in "Advanced Origami" - it is something like (Without the book in front of me here) "remember that Master Yoshizawa taught us that the the paper is the flesh, and the creases the bones".

Even Dr. Lang questions the absolute desirabillity of "tooth & claw realism" in the Foreword to "Origami Zoo" (though to me that is what his designs now appear increasingly to strive for) to the exclusion of all else.

However that seems to be the most popular expression of representative origami, many points and minute details, scales etc.

With that in mind, and the new maxim of efficiently engineered paper, Yoshizawa's star has faded. Unjustly in my opinion.

[Joe the white]

I had not heard much of Akira Yoshizawa until his passing sadly.

I had seen his works from when Joseph Wu visited him and added a gallery and commentation on his website, read David Lister's articles about him as well as Gershon Legman and the spread of modern origami (quite fascinating!), and I had but one book, Origami: Living Nature. Through the O-list I heard many things as well, various squabbles, his many designs, etc. That may seem like alot in retrospect, but I had viewed him differently than I do now.

I enjoyed the memories of Yoshizawa in the BOS mag 232, it gave me more insight to the man behind the folds. In summer of last year I recieved his Exhibition Catalogue by chance, and it stunned me. All these beautiful full color photos of his works, so many and so full of energy!. If he has created 50,000 models of such art as those, along with his historical significance, he had earned the title of "grand master".

He was also an important figure to me. I suppose I still fit in the "young designer" category at 22, but my works aren't quite as magnificient as Jason Ku's, etc. I'm not really good at computational origami or math in general. I hope to one day develop an artist style as Yoshizawa, Eric Joisel, Giang Dinh, and Michael LaFosse have. That is for the future though, I still have to catch up with the past.

[merman]

I had the huge pleasure of attending a masterclass by Yoshizawa over ten years ago.

Compared to modern day's technical artists Yoshizawa's work may have faded, but his artistry lied within the way he shaped and folded his models, not on the details. His folding was very organic and almost naieve, something some of the detailed designs of today lack. His work almost reminded me of the delight I felt when I started doing origami, when I didn't know the function of a specific fold and the result was pure magic. Some of that magic is lost now for me...

it is not hard folding a Yoshizawa design from a technical point of view. It is hard to fold them really good... that is were the artistry comes in...

What also struck me is he demonstrated his designs folding them in the mid air. Someone told me he very often folded not putting the paper flat on the table but holding it up in the air.

[Ondrej.Cibulka]

I prefered air folding some time before, but I returned to tabletop folding. It is cleaner and faster. Of course, up to specific point of concrete model, when air folding is necessary (as for example forming wing of crane).

Anyway, you are lucky man, if you attended a masterclass by Yoshizawa.

[InsomniacFolder]

In Peter Engels book he also describes attending a Yoshizawa class, folding an octopus. The other students were alarmed when Engel started to use his desk to fold upon - Yoshizawa and his students all folded exclusively in the air and in the hands.

When the Model was finished, Engel tried to adjust the octopus legs into a more lifelike posture, but Yoshizawa hurried over and stopped him. The idea being, I think, that this was his design, and the only correct way for the legs to be were as he had positioned them. Altered, they would no longer communicate his intention.

I agree about the difficulty not being the determining factor though - I have heard Yoshizawa models compared to Beethovens 'Moonlight' Piano Sonata, which is easy to play, fiendishly hard to play well.

[Ondrej.Cibulka]

The idea being, I think, that this was his design, and the only correct way for the legs to be were as he had positioned them. Altered, they would no longer communicate his intention.

Your text is very interesting and I red it with pleasure. But I am sorry I do not understand to this part even when I used a dictionary. I need to ask someone with better knowledge of the English.

[angrydemon]

It means that Akira does not want anyone else to shape his models because it would ruin his style...or at least that's what I think.

By the way, I think air folding is only good for demonstrations. When you fold paper in the air, it becomes harder to make sharp creases, especially with complex models. The reference points would go hay wire and end up in all the wrong places. Also, it's almost impossible to air fold paper bigger than 40cm by 40cm. I already have trouble flipping around the damn paper, now I have to do it with only both my hands, my tongue, and my eyelids. Something is clearly wrong here. Unless you have giant King-Kong sized palms with 23 skinny fingers on each hand or 40 years of folding experience, you'll probably end up with what we origamists call a "monolithic rubble stone boulder".

But of course, that is just my opinion. Feel free to start air folding the Ancient Dragon with your feet.

[Jonnycakes]

Folding in the air would not work from beginning to end for complex pieces.
Reference points and the like are better folded on a table in my opinion. With bigger paper, too, you would need to take this approach simply for the size. But there are things that folding in the air gives you that folding on a flat surface does not. You can vary the sharpness of the creases much better in the air-everything doesn't turn out to be razor sharp like when you make a crease with your nail on a table.

[Joseph Wu]

What it boils down to is using the right "tool" for the right purpose. Yoshizawa's method works best for what he did. You'll need to develop your own set of favourite techniques for what you like to make.

[Brimstone]

The idea being, I think, that this was his design, and the only correct way for the legs to be were as he had positioned them. Altered, they would no longer communicate his intention.

Your text is very interesting and I red it with pleasure. But I am sorry I do not understand to this part even when I used a dictionary. I need to ask someone with better knowledge of the English.

This means that Yoshizawa did not allow Engel to position the legs in the way that he (Engel) thought was the right way, because if he did so, it would project something different from what the intention that Yoshisawa was when he created the model.