Akira Yoshizawa
Akira Yoshizawa (Japanese吉泽 章, Akira Yoshizawa, born March 14, 1911 in Kaminokawa, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan, † 14 March 2005 in Ogikubo, Tokyo, Japan ) was a Japanese origami master. He is considered the founder of modern origami. He developed more than 50,000 models, of which only a few hundred are recorded in his numerous books. In 1983 he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun by the Japanese Emperor Hirohito.
Life
Akira Yoshizawa was born on March 14, 1911 in Kaminokawa, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan, into a peasant family. At age 13, the learned blacksmith took a job in a factory in Tokyo. When he was promoted in the 1930s as a technical draftsman, he taught the apprentices by origami. In 1937, he announced to full-time work as an origami artist. The next 20 years he lived in great poverty and earned his livelihood by selling Tsukudani, a Japanese food.
1944 appeared "Origami Shuko " by Isao Honda, which also showed work by Yoshizawa. In 1951, he appeared in the Japanese magazine " Asahi Graph", which increased his fame. 1954 published his first book, Atarashii Yoshizawa Origami Geijutsu (Eng. " New Origami Art "). In this work, first published in his chart system. Through this publication, his financial situation improved. A little later, in the same year, he founded the International Origami Centre in Tokyo.
His first exhibition overseas, organized in 1955, the architect and art collector Felix Tikotin at the Stedelijk Museum. In 1956 he married Kiyo who also acted as his manager and self- taught origami. In March 1998, Yoshizawa had the opportunity to host the world's largest origami exhibition at the Louvre in Paris.
Akira Yoshizawa died on 14 March 2005, his 94th birthday, in the hospital of Ogikubo from the effects of pneumonia.
Services
He invented his own system for printed folding instructions. The various folding steps are shown as graphs with the help of various arrows and lines. This allowed for the first time, more complex models to record and pass on. It was quickly adopted by moths all over the world and to the usual standard today, the Yoshizawa - Randlett system expands.
Yoshizawa developed many origami techniques, including so-called wet wrinkles. Here the paper is dampened before folding, which allows round and sculptural forms. The wet folds is often regarded as the innovation that made it possible to develop Origami by Customs to an art form.
Works (selection)
- Atarashii Geijutsu Origami, Origami Geijutsu - Sha 1954
- Origami Reader I, Ryokuchi - Sha, 1957
- Dokuhon, Vol.1 (origami Tokuhon ), 1973, ISBN 4-8216-0408-6
- Sosaku Origami (Creative Origami ) NHK 1984, ISBN 4-14-031028-6
- Dokuhon, Vol.2 (origami Tokuhon ), 1986
- Origami Dokuhon II ( Origami Reader II), Kamakura Shobo, 1986, ISBN 4-308-00400-4