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Last updated 31/1/2024

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1845

A design for a Dragonfly, folded from the slit hexagon base, appears in the 'Kan No Mado', which is usually dated to 1845.

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1896

Part 2 of 'The Republic of Childhood', titled 'Froebel's Occupations', by Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora Archibald Smith, which was published by Houghton, Mifflin and Company, of Boston and New York in 1896, contains reference to 'an airy dragonfly' among specimens of work from the Empress's kindergarten in Tokyo.

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The Cut Dragonfly - 1931 onwards

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1935

'Origami Moyo, Book One', by Kawarazaki Kodo, which was published by Unsodo in Japan in 1935, contained two prints showing dragonflies, the second of which is probably intended to be the Cut Dragonfly.

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Another Cut Dragonfly - 1959 onwards

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1960

An attempted reconstruction by Isao Honda of the dragonfly pictured on the cover of Gershon Legman's 'Bibliography of Paperfolding' (which was taken from the Kan no mado) appears in 'All About Origami' by Isao Honda, which was published by Toto Bunka Company, Limited in Tokyo in 1960. The design is folded from a hexagon without using cuts.

This was not in fact the method used in the Kan no mado (see above).

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The same design appears in 'The World of Origami' by Isao Honda, which was published by Japan Publications Trading Company in the USA in 1965.

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1964

'Secrets of Origami', by Robert Harbin, which was published by Oldbourne Book Company in London in 1964, contains diagrams for Ligia Montoya's attempt at reconstructing the Kan No Mado Dragonfly. The text mentions that 'Senorita Ligia Montoya has produced a dragonfly without making any cuts.'

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1965

Isao Honda included another reconstruction of The Kan-no-mado Dragonfly, this time from partially slit octagon, in his 'The World of Origami', which was published by Japan Publications Trading Company in the USA in 1965.

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1969

The same reconstruction appears in 'Nihon no kokoro dento origami' by Isao Honda, which was published by Japan Publications in Tokyo in 1969. The author says, roughly translated: 'As mentioned in the article 'About the Kan No Mado Manuscript' the tonba folding method illustrated here is thought to have been created as a by-product of creating two-dimensional figures of the characters in 'Orikata Tehon Chushingura. I would like to make it clear that the tonba folding method illustrated here is merely an explanation of the Kan No Mado's drawings and is not something I would recommend as an excellent work of art.'

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