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Last updated 25/6/2025

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The Cut Frog-Base Crab
 
This page attempts to record what is known about the origin and history of the origami design which I call The Cut Frog-Base crab. Please contact me if you know any of this information is incorrect or if you have any other information that should be added. Thank you.

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1878

A drawing of a crab that seems to have been developed from a frog base using diagonal cuts appears in 'Yochien Ombutsu No Zu', a publication of kindergarten material issued by the Tokyo Women's Normal School in 1878. There are no accompanying diagrams. Note that this crab has ten appendages, two more than the frog base would normally provide, and that the pincers are split. It is not clear to m,e where these extra appendages would come from. It seems probable to me that the illustrator has simply provided too many sets of legs and that this is The Cut Frog-Base Crab design.

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The same design appears:

1932

In Booklet 4 of 'Images a Plier', a series of 6 booklets published by Librairie Larousse in Paris in 1932.

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1939

'El Mundo de Papel' by Dr Nemesio Montero, which was published by G Miranda in Edicions Infancia in Valladolid in 1939, contains diagrams for a crab, 'El cangrejo del mar' which is essentially similar to the design in 'Images de Plier'.

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