A while ago I found a paragraph in Origami Omnibus (Kunihiko Kasahara) that intrigued me. It may have to do with your question. It prompted me several questions, as follows:
In his book Origami Omnibus, Kunihiko Kasahara says: "In the late nineteenth century, a paper dealer in the Yushima district of Tokyo imported colored papers from Europe, cut them into small squares, and sold them in sets called origami. And this was the origin of the kind of origami popular today." "Of course, origami itself is much older than the late nineteenth century. But until that time, it had been known by a variety of names --kami-orimono, orisue, origata, tatamigami, and so on--and had employed the kind of paper called hanshi, which is white on both sides and rectangular in shape." This text raises several questions: 1. Is anyone aware of the dealer mentioned by him? 2. Is there a way to confirm the story of a dealer who brought paper from Europe and cut it in squares for the first time? Where did he get that? 3. What is hanshi? Does he refer to washi paper? (Hanji for me is the Korean paper but going phonetically may only bring confusion. The type of hanshi he mentions may be something totally different and rooted in Japan, the English spelling sometimes is deceiving.) 4. All the previous names for paperfolding are well known to us. Does Kasahara want to imply that the word origami began to be used thanks to those little packages of paper? Okamura has a different view about the word "origami" and how it developed (also in the 19th century, but in the school environment) > On Nov 20, 2022, at 9:26 AM, Elina Gor via Origami > <origami@lists.digitalorigami.com> wrote: > > Hi everyone, > I am looking for a reference to a bibliographic source about one side colored > paper. > The idea to paint one side of the paper in color so it will be easier to > teach the model. As I knew it, it started from Froebel, but can't find the > source. Maybe it wasn't Froebel's idea at all? > > > <https://mailtrack.io/?utm_source=gmail&utm_medium=signature&utm_campaign=signaturevirality11&;> > Sender notified by > Mailtrack > <https://mailtrack.io/?utm_source=gmail&utm_medium=signature&utm_campaign=signaturevirality11&;> > 11/20/22, 02:22:37 PM >
