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PAPER |
Yoshizawa always manifested a big devotion to the paper. At his early start, he dyed and fabricated artisan paper for his models. During his teaching, he warned about the fragility and the high levels of acid on paper obtained from chemistry products, what was an impediment for a good manipulation and gave to the paper a short life. For that reason he only obtained material from one or two artisan Japanese paper companies, because he knew about its quality and the long life of its shapes and colours. In fact, one of his dreams, sometimes expressed but never done, was to scape to the mountains and learn the old way of paper fabrication. Occidental paper folding never paid so much attention to the paper, it was wanted that "it was enough" to make the model. The paper in origami should be compared with a canvas in painting. But in words of Yoshizawa "Origami, if you compare to painting, is the canvas, the brush and the paint, all together". He kept, from the beginning, a humble relationship with the paper, looking for the best symbiosis between the paper, the searching, the origamist, the crease, the model and its exhibition. The master always looked for choose the most appropriated paper with the best adaptation to the structure that he was going to create. That choice was part of the creative process, in which inverted a big amount of efforts choosing papers, adapting thickness, etc. |
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FOLDING |
Lets read the words of Yoshizawa through the years. In his book Creative origami he says «...the key of origami is the folding, not the squeezing or the creasing. The colour of the paper must be its own, it can't be painted or decorated». In other paragraph extracted from the same book, he exposes some concession «a little bit of "cut" may be used for obtain a better effect, but will be better not to make an origami that requires any cut». In the magazine The Origamian, in 1963, «I don't cut the paper; I never stick pieces together and I don't use any paint, because I like the paper "as it is"». In the magazine Japan Times, he said in 1969 «If I used scissors, my origami would be a cut paper craft. If I used glue, it would be a mosaic. If I painted it, it would be a painting». In Selections from Reader's Digest, in 1970, he told «...only with folds, never ever cut the paper». The master also warned about the conformism in paper folding. Diagrams were only the score that the person who was going to fold used with his own implication. «Following the instructions, any difficult model can be developed easily, but the result will always be a simply a paper folded that expresses nothing». |
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MODELS |
Yoshizawa affirmed, in 1989, that he had created up to 50.000 models. Some occidental origamists have calculated the average. Impossible! If he had spent thirty years in the origami, the result is four or five new creations each day. Impossible, again! Maybe we never understood what he wanted to say or our idea of what new models means different of his. Yoshizawa considered his models as sons and it looks like he never sold any to anyone. He insisted in the importance of give to the model the properties of unique and one of a kind. We all know, thanks to his books, that he usually made six, seven, even ten variations of a same model, improving it or adapting it. We also know that in his eighteen books he only showed few hundreds of models; a small slice of his enormous work. A paper folding creation is something delicate. The ambient elements, the manipulation, the carelessness may be lethal. This was what disturbed Yoshizawa. He desired to his figures a long life after his death. It was his legacy. "Because when we know that we are competent to our equals, our heart stays in peace". |
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DREAMS |
Always had the illusion to scape to the mountains, learn the old way of paper fabrication and participate in the whole creative process of the origami. It's known the he couldn't and we don't think that it was more than an utopia for him. But we know another of his dreams, maybe easier to make it real. In an article taken from Selections from Reader's Digest, in 1970, it was told that Yoshizawa's most longing dream was the foundation of a museum and investigation centre to share with all the towns of the world the benefits of the origami. "I would like to spend the rest of my life working on it". Despite his workshop is and has been a pilgrim place for origami lovers, he never made his dream came true. The Educational Museum of Origami of Zaragoza inherits his teaching, opening an emotional and sentimental link to the grandmaster, sharing his view of paper folding (origami for him) as an artistic, creative and educational activity capable in the union of cultures. For this reason, it is an honour for us to exhibit this origami show and contribute in make Yoshizawa Sensei's desires a reality. |
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SCORES |
Against the old folding instructions, most of them incomprehensible, Yoshizawa creates an intuitive code of symbols that makes easy the drawing of understandable diagrams and without frontiers of language. The master considers the origami one of the common languages in the world. Sharing his diagram system, he has contributed to the interconnection of artists and fans, promoting the expansion and progress of paper folding. In that facet Yoshizawa is also careful and fussy. Draws diagrams as an everything, adapting to the format in which he is going to publish, even if it supposes a new distribution of the folding steps. Is meticulous and always must draw his own instructions, can't leave that task in anyone's hands. Diagrams are, for the master, the basic score in which the origamist has to add his own sensitive and creative sense. |
