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Last updated 5/8/2024

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This page is under construction at present

The information on this page is taken from a copy of the work (perhaps the only remaining copy of the work) held in the library of the Museo del Origami in Colonia, Uruguay, and is used by kind permission of Laura Rozenberg. This originally belonged to Gershon Legman and the annotations, mostly in red ink but also in black and blue, were added by him. I am indebted to Andrew Dewar for checking the references to Yoshizawa and for elucidating the meaning of, and providing translations / paraphrases of, many other parts of the text. Any errors are however entirely my own.

A full copy of the work appears at the foot of this page.

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Introduction

'Origami Shuko' contains designs that had previously appeared in Honda's 'Origami Part 1' (the upper) and 'Origami Part 2' (the lower) as well as some new material. Some of this new material is clearly attributed to Yoshizawa (see list below). As far as I know, the remaining designs are either traditional or created by Honda himself. Where Honda has specifically claimed that a design is his own (whether here or elsewhere) I have indicated this information in the Analysis.

There are several passages in 'Origami Shuko' which make it clear that an earlier version of the book had been rejected for publication (presumably by Japanese government wartime censors). In the Introduction Honda talks about permission for publication of an earlier version being refused at the last moment. He says the reason for this rejection was probably his use of the (Western?) alphabet to number the diagrams but elsewhere (p??) he says he had given the book a bilingual English and Japanese text so that foreign children could benefit from origami as well as domestic readers, which no doubt would have constituted an equally good reason for rejection.

Honda is not a purist. On page 106 he suggests designs can be drawn on. On page 105 he says he is happy to use cuts to achieve more realistic results. As far as I know none of the designs attributed to Yoshizawa make use of cuts.

On page ?? Honda says that he hopes the book will eventually be translated into German and Italian for the needy children there. This restricted definition of 'foreign children' was presumably much more acceptable to the censors.

The author makes it clear that 'Origami Shuko' is intended to be an educational work for children, although he is never specific about what children will learn from the book.  He talks about the realism of the zoological and botanical models, and about finding examples of geometry in some of the designs, but doesn’t say how this translates into the specific knowledge that children will acquire through folding them.

One strange aspect of the book is that Yoshizawa is sometimes referred to just by his surname and sometimes as Shonan Yoshizawa, a name that is formed by adding an honorific character and the character for “south” to the characters for 'Akira'. It is not clear why Honda refers to Yoshizawa by this name. I do not know of it being used elsewhere.

On page 181, in the paragraph that Legman has marked with a black arrow, Honda says that many of the pieces by Shonan Yoshizawa use the revolutionary technique of folding from a triangle, and since many of their themes cannot be produced with any degree of realism from squares of paper, he is grateful to Yoshizawa for his valuable research and the improvement his models have brought to the book.

In the rightmost of the two passages Legman has marked with two concentric circles, Honda talks about the importance of using more realistic and scientifically correct models in education.

In the leftmost of the two passages that Legman has marked with two concentric circles, Honda says that the Hen, Rooster and Chicks shown at the front of the book require a level of technique almost impossible to diagram. Yoshizawa's decorated helmet, the tea kettle, the ogre mask, the raccoon-dog stomach drum, and so on, have both a traditional flavour and a very original technique, so his work should be highly praised, but the Hen, Rooster and Chicks are far too complicated for the kind of handicraft education for young people intended by this book, and so they have been left out. (Note that of the designs mentioned here, only the raccoon-dog stomach drum (design 57) is included in this book.)

Honda then goes on to talk about the models he has created himself, which are based on traditional designs. Honda says that his variations are 'more realistic' than the originals.

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Discussion of previous mentions of 'Origami Shuko' in the literature

Honda's later book 'The World of Origami', which was published in English by Japan Publications Trading Company in 1965, mentions 'Origami Shuko' in three places. These passages are reproduced here because they wiil be referred to in the discussion below.

(from the biographical notes on the dust jacket)

From p252

From p261

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The paperfolding historian David Lister mentioned 'Origami Shuko' in his writings on two occasions, in his article 'Isao Honda - An annotated list of his books' and in 'A Tribute To Akira Yoshizawa', which was written after Yoshizawa's death. As far as I know David Lister had not seen a full copy of the work. He does not give his sources but it seems likely to me that his information would have comes from Yoshizawa. Confirmation, or denial, of this may lie somewhere in Lister's papers, which are held by the British Origami Society, but which have not yet been made available for examination. Quotations from Lister's text are italicised here.

From Isao Honda - An annotated list of his books

Lister says: 'The book was published in 1944, but for some reason, Honda, himself said that it was published in 1941. It has been suggested that this was because he did not wish it to be known that the book was published during the Pacific War.'

Honda's assertion that the book was published in 1941 is found three times in 'World of Origami', on the dust jacket and on pages 252 and 261 (see above). On p261 Honda also specifically says 'This first collection of our origami charts was made public just before the Second World War.' This is, however, untrue. The title page of the book clearly states that 'Origami Shuko' was published in 1944. It is also, of course, not the first collection of his 'origami charts' (ie diagrams) since he had already published 'Origami' in two parts in 1931/2.

'Honda also tried to say that all copies of the book had been destroyed in the bombing of Tokyo and that even he did not retain a copy.'

The 'tried to say' wording suggests that Lister did not believe this statement. His scepticism on this point seems to have led to the belief in paperfolding circles that Honda deliberately suppressed the work and destroyed as many copies as he could (although we know that at least one survived).

If Honda did try to suppress the book, why would he have done so? Joan Sallas has suggested that he may have wished to do this because of the Imperial / patriotic symbols it contains. There are four of these:

An Imperial flag held by a nurse features on one of the introductory illustrations.

Design 105 is a simple hat, decorated with similar Imperial / patriotic symbols.

Design 155 is a Girl's Youth League figure. She is waving a Japanese flag.

Design 156 is a male Youth Brigade figure.

All of these would, presumably, have made the book more acceptable to the Japanese censors, but it is at least conceivable that Honda felt they were some kind of danger to him in the changed circumstances after the war.

However, it is also worth noting that in the passages referring to 'Origami Shuko' in 'World of Origami' Honda says nothing about the book being destroyed or suppressed, and, indeed, Honda writes about it as if it is freely available for reference.

'It contains a section of folds by Akira Yoshizawa which are fully attributed to him. Yoshizawa had offered his folds to Honda. They are typical of Yoshizawa’s earlier folds, being of animals formed from two squares of paper.'

The only compound design in 'Origami Shuko' which is attributed to Yoshizawa is design 124, the Camel.

In all three passages from 'World of Origami' (see above), Honda claims that it was his idea to create compound animal origami designs using two parts glued together. This claim is not made in 'Origami Shuko' except by default, in not attributing any of the compound designs other than the Camel to Yoshizawa.

'I understand that Honda included Yoshizawa’s folds with some reluctance because they were not traditional folds and for that reason, Honda did not consider them to fit in with the rest of the book.'

This seems to be a misunderstanding. Honda seems to have been happy, indeed delighted, to include some of Yoshizawa's folds in his book, alongside both Honda's own creations and some traditional folds. However, he does not include diagrams for all of Yoshizawa's folds because he thinks that the designs are almost too complex to disgrsm snd too difficult for the children the book is aimed at to fold.

From 'Tribute To Akira Yoshizawa'

'Many of the models in the book are the traditional folds which are familiar to us from his English books, but there is a section of two-piece models (of the kind which also occupy a large proportion of his English books). Honda steadfastly claimed these as his own, but each one has the name of Yoshizawa printed by it.'

See above. The statement that 'each one has the name of Yoshizawa printed by it' is untrue. Only one does.

'The peacock with the pleated tail became a particular point of contention, but Honda steadfastly and unambiguously maintained that this was his own model.'

The compound peacock design in 'Origami Shuko' is not attributed to Yoshizawa (although the Hen, Rooster and Chicks pictured on the same page are).

In all three of the passages from 'World of Origami' quoted above, Honda asserts that this Compound Peacock design is his own design.

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Designs attributed to Yoshizawa

The designs in the work that Honda attributes to Yoshizawa are:

Designs from squares:

The Hen, Rooster and Chicks pictured on page 5.

57. This design has two titles, 'Tanuki no Harazutsumi' (Raccoon-dog Stomach Drum) and in parenthesis 'Bunbuku Chagama'. (The same design appears under the second title in Yoshizawa's 'Origami Dukuhon'.)

88. Container on Legs. (A very similar design appears in Yoshizawa's 'Origami Dukuhon'.)

Designs from oblongs:

102. Cloak (derived from the traditional box design)

Designs from equilateral triangles:

120.The Wild Goose

121. Airplane

130. Frog

131. Pigeon

123. Nurse's Cap

131. Pigeon

133. Hexagonal Flower Shape

Designs from right angle isosceles triangles:

122. Sailboat

126. Geese (two designs)

127. Cormorant

Designs from 120 / 60 degree rhombic paper:

Design 134 is a module in the shape of a a 120 / 60 rhombus. 135 to 138 show how a flat hexagon and several open base polyhedra can be assembled from this module.

140. Lion Dance

Compound designs:

124. Camel

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Analysis of designs

1. Katakake (Shoulder Bag)

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2. Emperor and Empress Dolls

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3. The Dove

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4. The Paper Cup

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5. The Pig

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6. The Japanese House

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7. The Organ

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8. Simple Wallet

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9. The Fox Mask

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10. Duck

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13. Mandarin Duck

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16. The Simple Swan

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11. Seal - The Fish-Base Seal / 12. Penguin - The Fish-Base Penguin

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14 and 15. Two Fish

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17.Shrimp (Cut)

The feelers are obtained using cuts.

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18. The Cut Turtle

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19. The Kabuto

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20. Another Kabuto

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21. Rabbit Hat

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22 and 23. Two versions of The Cut Goldfish

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24 and 25. Two versions of the Nagakabuto

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26. The Carrier Pigeon / 27. Paper Plane (from a square)

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28. Another Minogame

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29. The Paper Crane

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30. The Kabuto-Base Cicada

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31. The Cut Dragonfly / 32. The Fat Sparrow

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33. The Star-Shaped Box

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34. The Hibachi

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35. The Cake Box

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36. 13 Connected Cranes

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37. The Nesting Crane

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38. The Fox Face

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39. The Cut Swallow / 40. The Woodcock

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41. Morning Glory (Cut)

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42. Tulip (multipiece)

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43. Pigeon - The Flapping Dove

There is no indication in these diagrams that this is an action design

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44. The Crow with Legs / 45. The Hen with Legs

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46. Kunukinohara tsutsumi - The Cut Mouse

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47. The Kago

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48. The Cut Bird-Base Turtle

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49. The Bird-Base Pheasant

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50. Bird-Base Pheasant variation

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51. Honda's Peacock

In his later 'World of Origami' Honda clearly stated that this was his design.

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52 The Cut Canary / 53 Another Cut Canary

Both these designs use cuts to release the paper that folds upwards to create the wings.

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54. Tachizuru - Standing Crane

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55. The Cut Owl

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56. The Kan No Mado Crab

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57. Hanabishikoubako or Bunbuku Chagama

This design is attrubuted to Yoshizawa.

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58. The Inflatable Frog

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59. Koshin Monkey (Cut)

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60. Dog / 61. Boar / 62. Monkey - All cut designs from bird bases

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63. Seal - from a bird base

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64. Yurinohana - The Lily / 65. Kinchaku - Purse

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66. The Cut Phantom

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67. The Waterbomb / 68. The Mushikago

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69. Komori - The Cut Bat

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70. The Winnowing Box / 71. The Blintz Box

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72. Jiyuban (the undershirt)

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73. The Pull-Out Butterfly

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74. Nisobune - The Double Boat

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75. Hanamoyo - Schonheitsformen (Forms of Beauty)

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76. Shows how to blintz a square / 77. Yakko - Yakkosan

78. Momohiki - The Trousers / 79. Shojiki Chosan

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80. Chochin - The Lantern / 81. Butterfly - The Vase / 82. Kazaguruma - The Windmill / 83. The Boat with Sail

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84. Henka Fukusuke - Japanese Transformable Picture Form leading to Simple Fukusuke

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85. The Sanbo

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86. The Sanbo on Legs

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87. The Spanish Box

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88. Decorative Box / Bowl

This design is attributed to Akira Yoshizawa.

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89. Astragalus (from a doubly blintzed square)

90. Baranohana (Rose) (from a triply blintzed square) - The Lotus

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91. Ruhishizara

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92. The Inside Out Boat / 93. Motor Boat - The Sampan and The Rainy Day Sampan

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94. The Tenjin Shrine

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95. Chousenbune or Sengokobune - The Takarabune

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96. Figure (from a slit square base)

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97. Kitsune no Hanamuko (fox groom) (from a slit square base)

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98. Male and Female Hina Dolls (from slit square bases)

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99. Rokkasen (six poets) (from slit square bases)

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100. ??????

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101. The Paper Banger

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102. Cloak

Made by leaving one end of a Collapsible Box unfolded.

This design is attributed to Yoshizawa.

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103. The Collapsible Box

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104. Tatamibako - another version of The Collapsible Box

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105. Hat (decorated as an Imperial Flag) / 106. Waste Paper Basket - Le Bonnet Carre

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107. Chochin - The Long Lantern

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108. The Dove (paper plane)

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109. The Puzzle Purse

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110. Octagonal Decorations (from squares)

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111. The Novelty Purse

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112. Hexagonal Decorations (from hexagons)

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113. The Fold and One Cut Octagon / 114. The Fold and One Cut Hexagon

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115. Octagonal Decoration (from an octagon)

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116. Cut Crocodile

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117. How to make an Equilateral Triangle using a set square

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118. Kakitsubata - The Iris (from an equilateral triangle)

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119. Kakitsubata - The Lily (from a ?????)

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120.The Wild Goose / 121. Airplane

Both of these designs are attributed to Akira Yoshizawa.

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122. The Yacht

This design is attributed to Akira Yoshizawa.

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123. Nurse's Cap

This design is attributed to Akira Yoshizawa.

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124. Camel (compound design)

This desugn is attributed to Akira Yoshizawa.

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125. Goose

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126. Ducks (two designs) / 127. Cormorant

Both these designs are attributed to Akira Yoshizawa.

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128. Duck - The Albatross

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129. Swallow (Cut) (from an equilateral triangle)

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130. Frog (from equilateral triangle)

This design is attributed to Akira Yoshizawa.

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131. Pigeon (from an equilateral triangle)

This design is attributed to Akira Yoshizawa.

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132. Kangaroo (compound)

Both pieces are folded from equilateral triangles.

This is one of Honda's own designs.

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133. Hexagonal Decoration (from an equilateral triangle)

This design is attribured to Yoshizawa.

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134 / 139. Module (from a 120 / 60 rhombus) and constructions for a flat hexagon and open base polyhedra.

This design is attributed to Yoshizawa.

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140. Lion Dance (from an equilateral triangle)

This design is attributed to Akira Yoshizawa.

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141. Batta (grasshopper) (Cut) (from a 120/ 60 rhombus)

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142. Snail (from a 120 / 60 rhombus)

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143. Tobacco Pouch - The Business Card Holder

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144. The Teapot Stand

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145. The Tobacco Case

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147. The Tematebako

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148. The Hexagonal Tematebako

146. shows the Hexagonal Tematebako being used as a kusudama.

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149. Horse (compound) (from two bird bases)

This is one of Honda's own designs.

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150. Hummingbird (Cut)

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151. Fox (compound) (from two bird bases)

This is one of Honda's own designs.

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152. Elephant (compound) (from two bird bases)

This is one of Honda's own designs.

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153. Cat (compound) (from two bird bases)

This is one of Honda's own designs.

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154. Bear (compound) (from two bird bases)

This is one of Honda's own designs.

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155. Girl's Youth League figure (with Japanese flag).

(compound) (from two bird bases with inserted circular head)

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156.

Boy's Youth League figure

(compound) (from two bird bases with inserted circular head)

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157. Nurse (compound) (from two bird bases with inserted circular head)

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158. The Mystery Box

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159. How to fold a hand towel?

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160. The Kimono

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164 - 170

These pages show how to fold and free weave strips of paper together in various ways.

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171. How to weave folded strips together

172. 3-Bladed Windmill (from three woven folded strips)

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173. 8-bladed Windmill (from 8 folded strips)

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174. Baranohana (rose) - The Froebel Star

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175. Medal (multipiece)

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176. Noshi

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177. Package with Noshi

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178. Wrapper for Sesame Seeds

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179. The Crane Envelope

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180. Package with Noshi

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181. ????????

182. ????????

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183. ????????

184. ????????

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185. Cover for a sake bottle

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186. ?????????

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187. Ocho and Mecho

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188. How to tie Mizuhiki

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189. ????????

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These four instructions for folding tsutsumi appear at this point without numbers.

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190. The Bishop's Crown - The Pipe Cap

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191. Fan

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192. Lunch

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193. Dahlia

194. Orchid

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The Work

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The Hen, Rooster and Chicks shown at the foot of the left hand are attributed to Yoshizawa. The Peacock is not.

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Introduction

Left page: Legman has circled remarks about the importance of origami in education. There is no reference to Yoshizawa here.

Right page: Legman has circled characters which say 'For education, for education.'

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The Index

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The Designs

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Right page: The characters Legman has circled say 'Eboshi-gata', or 'in the style of those black crest-like Heina hats'. There is no reference to Yoshizawa and it is unclear why Legman should have circled these characters.

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Legman has marked this design with a circle, possibly because he believed it was by Yoshizawa. However the text here doesn’t mention Yoshizawa and the design is not attributed to him by Honda. See discussion about the authorship of this design above.

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Honda attributes this design to Yoshizawa.

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Honda attributes design 88 to Yoshizawa.

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Right page: Design 102 is a Cloak, based on the traditional box design, which Honda attributes to Yoshizawa. Legman has drawn a blue line through the Yoshizawa attribution, which may possibly indicate that he thought the atrribution was incorrect.

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Right page: The first paragraph says that 'it has been known for a long time that an iris can be folded from a triangle, but the use of equilateral triangles, isosceles triangles, and parallelograms can lead to a lot of interesting designs. Most of the following designs are the result of Shonan Yoshizawa’s efforts with these shapes.'

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Designs 120 and 121 are atrributed to Yoshizawa.

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Designs 122, 123 and 124 are attributed to Yoshizawa.

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Designs 126 and 127 (but not 125) are attributed to Yoshizawa.

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Design 129, the Frog. is attributed to Yoshizawa. Honda says that it is a realistic model inspired by a book about zoology.

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Model 131, the Pigeon, is attributed to Yoshizawa. Honda says he has included it as an example of an easily folded model from an equilateral triangle.

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Design 133 is attributed to Yoshizawa.

Design 134 is a module both folded from and in the shape of a 120 / 60 rhombus. Honda attributes this design to Yoshizawa.

135 to 138 show how a flat hexagon and several open base polyhedra can be assembled from this module. In the last line of text describing this design Honda says that this technique will allow you to create several tens of other models.

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Design 140, the Lion Dance, is attributed to Yoshizawa.

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Although Legman has marked design 152, the Compound Elephant, with a red circle, Honda does not attriibute it to Yoshizawa.

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On page 181, in the paragraph that Legman has marked with a black arrow, Honda says that many of the pieces by Shonan Yoshizawa use the revolutionary technique of folding from a triangle, and since many of their themes cannot be produced with any degree of realism from squares of paper, he is grateful to Yoshizawa for his valuable research and the improvement his models have brought to the book.

In the rightmost of the two passages Legman has marked with two concentric circles, Honda talks about the importance of using more realistic and scientifically correct models in education.

In the leftmost of the two passages Legman has marked with two concentric circles, Honda says that the chickens shown at the front of the book require a level of technique almost impossible to diagram. Yoshizawa's decorated helmet, the tea kettle, the ogre mask, the raccoon-dog stomach drum, and so on, have both a traditional flavour and a very original technique, so his work should be highly praised, but the hens are far too complicated for the kind of handicraft education for young people intended by this book, and so they have been left out. (Note that of the designs mentioned here, only the raccoon-dog stomach drum (design 57) is included in this book.)

Honda then goes on to talk about the models he has created himself, which are based on traditional models. Honda says that his variations are 'more realistic' than the originals were.

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Title Page

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