ORIGAMI

In Japan, most people do ORIGAMI when they are children. No special equipment or tools are required, just a square of paper to fold. You do not even need scissors or glue. All kinds of things can be fashioned with ORIGAMI. Like iris, crane, paper balloon. From wild flowers to objects found around the home with ORIGAMI, a child's imagination can run free.

Since the old days in Japan, paper was not just something to write or paint on; it was a sacred object invested with spiritual meaning. An ancient custom involves cutting paper into the shape of a person and letting it float away down a stream. This is done as a symbolic way to get rid of impurity.

Paper also long been important as a wrapping material for gifts. And about 600 years ago, strict rules of etiquette were established, governing the way paper was folded and endowed with its own specific meaning. While folding the paper, people would bless it with their prayers, so that no impurities were conferred to the gift inside. Then,wrapped in the paper,the gift would be delivered to the recipient. The techniques used in gift wrapping eventually gave rise to the sophisticated craft that is called ORIGAMI.

One of the most famous ORIGAMI forms if known as RENTURU(like the pic), meaning "linked cranes". With a few incisions,a single sheet of paper can be folded into numerous cranes , all connected. IN the 18th and 19th centuries, ORIGAMI techniques of this type were developed to a remarkable level of sophistication. ORIGAMI cranes took on a special significance after the world war 2. The children's Peace Monument in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park depicts a girl lifting a paper crane towards the sky. The girl who was the model for this statue was exposed to radiation in the bombing of Hiroshima when she was 2 years old. 9 years later, she developed leukaemia. One day, , lying in her hospital bed, she heard that folding 1000 paper cranes would make her wish came true. Her wish was to get well, so she began folding paper cranes using medicine wrappers and whatever paper she could find. But her wish did not come true, and she died at the age of 12. The story of this girl widely known, and later, people began to consider sets of 1000 cranes to be a special form of ORIGAMI imbued with hopes and prayers. For people in Japan, ORIGAMI is more than just a leisure activity; it is a compact form of art reflecting people's thoughts and feelings.