Wow Michael —- thank you for sharing that story! Pretty amazing how far and wide the sonobe module has spread and many times, ppl fold it without even knowing the name —— almost like it’s a traditional fold.
My introduction to origami was early when my father folded the crane and other models for my brother and me when we were kids, from foil that wrapped chocolate. That early introduction was but a seed… then a second chance connection to origami was when i was in college, 3rd year architecture school, during the first of many existential questioning phases I’ve had, I saw on the table of a 4th or 5th year student, a “colorful paper thing”. That student was from Japan and he happily showed me how to fold the modules and the geometry of assembly etc… and i don’t recall if he mentioned that it was a sonobe modular or not, but I’m pretty sure that it was. I rmber he said that he’d learnt it as a child in school in Japan. Folding that sonobe modular started my now ever present love of folding… Best, Vishakha . On Jan 26, 2026, at 01:52, Mike Naughton via Origami <[email protected]> wrote: I agree that the Sonobe models are good for beginners. In my experience, the 6-unit cube is a good one to start, followed by the 12-unit augmented octahedron. Interestingly, according to Mitsunobu Sonobe (in an interview in ORU magazine in 1996), his teaching of his unit is what led to it becoming so popular. As he told it, he had discovered the 6-unit cube, which he called the "color box", but neither he nor the people around him thought much of it. It was nice, but he himself was more interested in creating flowers -- at the time, he thought that would be the pathway to fame. One day he was asked to teach a group, and when he was deciding what to teach he reasoned that the color box unit was easy to fold, and assembling the box took a little while, so it was a good thing to teach. After the class, one of the students sent him a box with the 30-unit augmented icosahedron and a note saying this is what can be done with thirty. Sonobe and Kunihiko Kasahara were very impressed, and they went on to discover the 12-unit model (and likely others), and they also spread the word. Some time later, the students at Waseda University organized a "color box presentation"; they invited Sonobe, and he went and was very impressed with all the things that they'd done. The rest is history. Sonobe appreciated the irony that he had hoped to become famous in the origami world for creating flowers, but instead he had done so with a model that at first he had not thought much of. Happy folding, Mike Naughton On 1/24/2026 11:08 PM, wanderer via Origami wrote: > This is my first choice as well. > > And sometimes we even fold them starting with 6” squares > > Best, > Vishakha > > > On Jan 25, 2026, at 02:53, Julia Palffy via Origami > <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi, > I found models with the Sonobe unit (up to 12 units) a good idea - the > modules are easy to learn, and people can help each other putting them > together. > Hoping this helps, > > Julia Palffy -- This email has been checked for viruses by AVG antivirus software. www.avg.com
