Michael LaFosse wrote:
Hello Dawn, and all: I think that this is as good a place as any to mention a few things from a conversation that I had with Mr. Yoshihide Momotani, back in 1998, in Paris--about a dozen or so of us were there to exhibit our origami creations at the Carrousel du Louvre. Mr. Momotani explained to me that he had been researching the history of paper folding as it was employed in the original Kindergarten, prescribed by Friedrich Froebel. ... 1. The use of the word "Origami" as it pertains to modern paper folding activities was the direct result of German texts for Kindergarten paper-folding exercise being transliterated into Japanese after Kindergarten was introduced in Japan. Froebel simply used the German words "Papier Falter" (paper folding) to identify this activity. "Papier Falter" was directly transliterated to Origami for use in the Japanese Kindergarten texts... Now Michael writes: Hi folks, The German word for paper folding should have been written "Papierfalten," not Papier Falter, as I wrote in the above account. Thanks to Wensdy Whitehead for the correction. All the best, Michael
