As some of you may know I have a section on my website devoted to origami history (http://www.origamiheaven.com/historyindex.htm) which contains pages in which I try to gather together what is known about certain topics or designs. I do this for my own enlightenment ... but the results are there for you to look at if you wish.
At the moment I have been looking at the topic of tsutsumi or Japanese ceremonial wrappers. Normally I mostly track and regurgitate things that are already known ... but in this case I seem to have stumbled upon something that isn't recorded in the usual sources ... and so I share it here. The Met in New York has in its collection a scrapbook album of tsutsumi, accession number 2013.248.1-.25, about which the Met says, 'According to the inscriptions, this set of models served as the initiation into the art of origata for Kikuchi Fujiwara no Takehide by an Ogasawara master, and is dated the third month of 1697.' This is a lot earlier than the 1764 'Hoketsuki' (wrapping and tying) by Ise Sadatake which is usually given as the first hard evidence for tsutsumi. The link is https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/78428?sortBy=Relevance&ft=folded+paper&offset=40&rpp=20&pos=57 if you are interested in having a look. Dave
