The Life of Akira Yoshizawa, the Grandmaster of Origami

                                                          AKIRA YOSHIZAWA 吉澤 章

Akira Yoshizawa was an origamist highly regarded as the Grandmaster of origami. He is credited for raising origami from a craft to a living art. He used to believe that folding an origami model in the air would surround the creation with life!

Yoshizawa was born on the 14th of March, 1911, in Kaminokawa, Japan, to the family of a dairy farmer. As a child, he used to take pleasure in teaching himself origami. He moved into a factory job in Tokyo when he was only 13 years old. His passion for origami was rekindled in his early twenties when he was promoted from a factory worker to a technical draftsman. He was to teach geometry to junior employees. Here, Yoshizawa used the traditional art of origami to understand and communicate geometrical problems.

In 1937, Yoshizawa left his factory job to pursue his passion, origami, full-time. His following 20 years were in total poverty; earning his living by selling tsukudani( a preserved Japanese condiment usually made of seaweed). During World War II, Yoshizawa served in the army medical corps. He used to make origami models to cheer up sick patients, but he fell ill during that time and was sent back to Japan. His origami work was included in the 1944 book Origami Shuko by Isao Honda. However, his career was actually launched when his work was included in the January 1952 issue of the magazine Asahi Graph, which included the 12 zodiac signs commissioned by a magazine.

1954 his first monograph, Atarashii Origami Geijutsu ( New Origami Art), was published. In this work, he established the Yoshizawa-Randlett System, a system you will learn about in later posts. This system is widely used by origamists and paper folders. This publication helped Yoshizawa out of his poverty. He founded the International Origami Centre in Tokyo in 1954 when he was 43. Yoshizawa lent many of his own origami models to exhibitions around the world. He never sold his figures, he felt immense pleasure just giving the models as gifts to people or letting exhibitions borrow them.

Yoshizawa was the pioneer of many techniques used in origami, but wet-folding is one of his most significant contributions. In wet-folding, you first dampen the paper using water, and then the paper can be manipulated easily, resulting in figures that look aesthetically rounded and curved, a more sculpted look. Wet folding can be used in flashers as well! You put a rubber band on a closed flasher, dip it in water, and leave it out to dry. Then when you open it, it will spring back into the closed position rapidly. He was known to say, " When you fold, the ritual and the act of creation is more important than the final result. When your hands are busy, your heart is serene."

Yoshizawa, at the age of 94, passed away in Itabashi, Tokyo, due to pneumonia complications, leaving a beautiful legacy in the world of origami.