Akira Yoshizawa

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Akira Yoshizawa (吉澤 章 Yoshizawa Akira; 14 March 1911 – 14 March 2005) was considered to be the grandmaster of origami.

Born the son of a dairy farmer in rural Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. He moved into a factory job in Tokyo when he was 13 years old. In the evenings he continued his education and became a technical draftsman, using the traditional art of origami to understand and communicate geometrical problems.

In 1937 he left factory work to pursue origami full-time. His work was creative enough to be included in the 1944 book Origami Shuko, by Isao Honda (本多 功). However it was his work for a 1951 issue of the magazine Asahi Graph that launched his career. His first published monograph, Atarashi Origami Geijutsu (New Origami Art) was published in 1954. In this work he established the Yoshizawa-Randlett system of notation for origami folds which has become the standard for most paperfolders. The publication of the book was followed closely by his founding of the International Origami Centre in Tokyo and a series of international exhibitions.

Yoshizawa acted as an international cultural ambassador for Japan throughout his career. He is credited with raising origami from a craft to a living art. In all, he created more than 50,000 models, of which only a few hundred designs were diagrammed in his 18 books. He pioneered many techniques, including wet-folding. In this technique the paper is dampened before folding, letting the folder create a much more rounded and sculpted look. This was considered by many to be the paradigm shift of sorts that allowed origami to become an artform, as opposed to a quaint oddity of folklore. In 1983, Japanese emperor Hirohito named him to the Order of the Rising Sun.

[edit] Akira Yoshizawa

Akira Yoshizawa was known to many as the ‘Father of Modern Origami’. Born on March 14th 1911, in Kaminokawa, Japan, Yoshizawa came from a humble background, but did not let this deter him from achieving greatness. When he was a child, he took pleasure in teaching himself origami. His passion for it was rekindled in his early 20’s, when he was promoted from factory worker to technical draftsman. His new job was to teach junior employees about geometry. He recalled his love of paper folding, and used it as a teaching aid. A while later, he resigned from his post in the factory, so that he could pursue his dream of becoming an origami artist. During the next 20 years, he lived in total poverty, and had to go door-to-door selling Japanese soup called Tsukudani (made of soy sauce and seafood) so that he could scrape enough money together to buy the necessities, and of course, origami paper. Although life at this time was painfully difficult, he persevered, and throughout this time, he continued creating patterns and folding existing ones. Only a few of the patterns that he invented during this time were recorded. In 1954, a magazine commissioned Yoshizawa to create origami figures for each of the 12 zodiac signs. This is when his professional career truly started. Shortly after, he published a book called Atarashi Origami Geijutsu, or, in English, New Origami Art, in which he established the origami symbols that are still used in origami pattern books today. The publishing of this book greatly increased Yoshizawa’s income, and helped him out of his poverty. Yoshizawa founded the International Origami Centre in 1954, when he was 43 years of age. A year later, he hosted his first major origami exhibition, and lent many of his own origami models to other exhibitions around the world. He would not ever sell his origami figures, but he would often give them away as gifts to people, and let other groups and organizations borrow them for a while. In 1956, he married a woman named Kiyo, who acted as his manager and taught origami alongside him. It was around this time that he became famous worldwide, and was made a cultural ambassador of Japan by the Japan foundation. In 1983, Yoshizawa was awarded to the Order of the Rising Sun by the Japanese Emperor, one of the most honorary awards that can be given to a Japanese citizen. Akira Yoshizawa was also one of the pioneers of wet folding, which involves spraying a thick piece of paper with a light mist, and then molding the paper into sculptural forms. He made many figures in this way, including his famous gorilla, which has a very primitive, deeply creased face that was created by wet folding. In 1989 he estimated that he had created more than 50,000 models. Eighteen origami books were actually written by Yoshizawa, but only a few hundred of his designs were diagrammed by him. Many of his patterns were diagrammed by other competing origami artists, and this angered Yoshizawa when he was younger. However, as he grew older he became mellower, and found that he was not so repulsed by rival origami folders any more, and that, in fact, he enjoyed their company. In March 1998, Yoshizawa was invited to exhibit his origami, at which is currently the greatest origami exhibition ever staged, in the Louvre museum. He did so joyfully, and was not at all opposed to having his photo taken with other competing origami artists. Akira Yoshizawa died on March 14, 2005 in Ogikubo, at the age of 94. Akira Yoshizawa persevered and continued seeking his dream, even when it seemed that everything around him was despairing. He always used his talent for good, not only for himself, but to teach and bring happiness to others. In this way, he climbed from the bottom of society’s ladder to the top, and made his fortune finding innovative new ways to do something that he loved, and share it with the world.

[edit] External links

• Tribute by David Lister
• Obituary from the London Times

Persondata
NAME	Akira, Yoshizawa
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Yoshizawa, Akira
SHORT DESCRIPTION	origami master
DATE OF BIRTH	March 14, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH	Tochigi Prefecture, Japan
DATE OF DEATH	March 14, 2005
PLACE OF DEATH	Ogikubo, Tokyo, Japan