> Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2018 13:25:39 +0100 > From: Wolf Weidner <m...@tavinsorigami.com> > Subject: [Origami] Why did origami become popular in the 1980s ?
Dear O-List, > > I am currently working on a paper about the world-wide success of origami. > In the google ngram viewer (a website that let's your search for term in > a large amount of books) I looked up origami, and found in various > languages, that the rise of the term "origami" began in the 1980s [1] > Does anyone have an idea why that is? > Did one of yoshizawas books get translated? Did a movie feature origami? > Was it the activities of origami USA[2] ? > I want to analyse in the paper why origami did become a known artform > around the world while a lot of other equally beautfull artforms stay > relativly unkown. > all the best, > Wolf aka Tavin > > [1]? > https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Origami&year_start=1940&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2COrigami%3B%2Cc0 > [2] https://origamiusa.org/history Hi, Wolf, 3/19/2018 I really hope you'll share your paper with the O-List! I'm skeptical that there was a single cause for the world-wide rise of interest in origami. And I also doubt that the Ngram can give a complete, fine-grained picture of the timing, especially for the early years. David Lister wrote an essay (late 1990s, I surmise) that argues for the 1950s and 1960s as the crucial period. http://www.britishorigami.info/academic/lister/ori_books_50s.php He also comments on the nuances of origami vs paperfolding: http://www.britishorigami.info/academic/lister/ori_vs_paperfolding.php (Try a "paperfolding" Ngram.) Some questions to investigate about the timing that the Ngram suggests: * How long after World War II did it take for kami to get marketed outside Japan? * What prompted Dover Publications to reprint Murray and Rigney's 1928 classic. "Fun with Paper Folding" in 1960"? [see Lister essay] * When did the Charles E. Tuttle Co (now Tuttle Publishing), start putting out origami books? Tuttle publishing was started by an American military man who married a Japanese woman in Occupation-era Japan. * How did the introduction of cheap photocopying stimulate the sharing of diagrams? https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/duplication-nation-3D-printing-rise-180954332/ (Origami sighting! witty use of paper airplanes in illustration by Kotryna Zukauskaite) * How did television spread paperfolding among children? In the US, Shari Lewis was broadcasting children's shows starting in the early 1950s and collaborated with Lillian Oppenheimer on the book Folding Paper Puppets (1962, many reprints). Robert Harbin was teaching paperfolding on British TV in the 1970s. http://www.britishorigami.info/academic/lister/shari.php http://www.britishorigami.info/academic/lister/oriinskools.php (For more of David Lister's wonderful essays: http://www.britishorigami.info/academic/lister/index.php ) Thanks for raising this fascinating question! Karen Karen Reeds, co-ringleader Princeton Public Library Origami Group Affiliate of Origami USA, http://origamiusa.org/ We usually meet 2nd Wednesday of the month, 6:30-8pm, First Floor, Quiet Room. Free! We provide paper! All welcome! (Kids under 8, please bring a grown-up.) Princeton Public Library info: 609.924.9529 https://princetonlibrary.org/ Celebrating 12 years of paperfolding in Princeton! Our next meetings: Wednesday, April 11, 2018 Wednesday, May 9, 2018 from Karen Reeds karenmre...@gmail.com
