Tamatebako

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A Tamatebako closed and one opened

An unglued tamatebako coming apart

The Tamatebako (玉手箱, Tamatebako^?) is an Origami model featured in a Japanese folk tale. It is a modular cube design that can be opened from any side. If more than one face of the model is opened, the cube falls apart and cannot easily be reconstructed. The model, and the directions for creating it, had been lost for centuries and only recently rediscovered.

Drawings from a three volume set of wood carvings, "Ranma-Zushiki" (Ranma Sketches) published in 1743 by Hayato Ohoka, featured a colored origami cube. In 1993, Yasuo Koyanagi identified the cube as the Tamatebako, and the model was published in the book "Koten-ni-miri-origami" by Satoshi Tagaki. The popular origami historian, Masao Okamura then was able to reconstruct the model, and by comparison to other traditional works, verify the model's authenticity.

1 Urashima Taro and the Tamatebako
2 Urashima Jinjya
3 Basic instructions
4 See also
5 External links
6 Further reading

[edit] Urashima Taro and the Tamatebako

The name "Urashima Taro" first appears in the 15th century (the Muromachi Era), in the book Otogizoushi, but the story is much older, dating back to the 8th century (the Yamato Era). These older books, such as "Nihonsyoki", "Manyou-Shu", and "Tango-no-Kuni Fudoki" refer to Urashima Taro as "Urashimako", though the story is the same. This represents a change in Japanese naming customs; in the previous eras, -ko (child) was used for both male and female names, while in later times it was mostly a female name element, replaced with -tarou, (great youth) in boys' names.

A fisherman, named Urashima Taro, one day ran across some children tormenting a sea turtle. Urashima Taro purchased the turtle from the children to stop the abuse, and then released it to the sea.

Some time later, the sea turtle returned, and being grateful invited him to come and live with him in the enchanted palace of Oto-Hime, who is the Mistress of the Sea. Urashima Taro went, ate at a big feast, watched the fish dance, and enjoyed the enchanted land for three months. Eventually he began to miss his home land.

So he asked Oto-Hime to send him back home, which she was happy to do. As a parting gift, she gave him the Tamatebako with explicit instructions to never open the box. He went back home, but to his dismay, all that he once knew had changed. He did not recognize the people, the buildings, or anything at all. He came across an old man, and asked him if he had ever heard of Urashima Taro. The man replied that he had heard of him, that he had gone to the sea 300 years ago and never returned.

With time he grew very depressed, and decided to see what was in the box. When he opened to box, a white puff of smoke escaped, and he was transformed into an old, white haired man. The time that had passed while he was at the palace was great, and Oto-Hime had stored his old age away in the Tamatebako, which Urashima Taro released.

[edit] Urashima Jinjya

A shrine on the western coast of the Tango Peninsula, named Urashima Jinjya, contains an old document describing a man, Urashimako, who left his land in 478 A.D. and visited a land where people never die. He returned in 825 A.D. with a Tamatebako. 10 days later he opened the box, and a cloud of white smoke was released, which turned Urashimako into an old man.

Later that year, after hearing the story, Jyunna Tenno ordered Ono-no-Takamura to build a shrine to commemorate Urashimako's strange voyage, and to hold the Tamatebako and the spirit of Mizuenourano-Shimako.

[edit] Basic instructions

A pinwheel fold

Valley-fold a square into thirds between both pairs of edges, creating nine sub-squares. Cut a diagonal X across the entire center square, pinwheel-fold the outer edges, and fold the protruding pinwheel flaps inward, interleaving them to produce a multilayered square with the top woven together. Fold outward the triangular flaps cut from the center square. This creates one face of the cube; the entire cube requires six identical modules.

The cube can be assembled either with or without glue. (A glued model will not fall apart.) If not using glue, then with each module tuck one opposing pair of cut flaps into the pockets at the base of the pinwheel, and tuck the remaining pair of cut flaps into the pockets of their adjacent faces. Otherwise, glue together the undersides of the flaps of adjacent faces; when the glue is dry, tuck the glued flaps into the pinwheel pockets in the same manner as above, with each face having one pair of flaps tucked into itself and the other two tucked into the adjacent faces.

The glued model must be opened by unfolding one face from its pinwheel. The unglued model can also be opened by gently pulling one face completely off the rest of the cube.