(born 1941) is a Japanese
origami
) is the Japanese paper art, art of paper folding. In modern usage, the word "origami" is often used as an inclusive term for all folding practices, regardless of their culture of origin. The goal is to transform a flat square sheet of pape ...
master. He has made more than a hundred origami models, from simple lion masks to complex
modular origami
Modular origami or unit origami is a paperfolding technique which uses two or more sheets of paper to create a larger and more complex structure than would be possible using single-piece origami techniques. Each individual sheet of paper is fol ...
, such as a
small stellated dodecahedron
In geometry, the small stellated dodecahedron is a Kepler-Poinsot polyhedron, named by Arthur Cayley, and with Schläfli symbol . It is one of four nonconvex regular polyhedra. It is composed of 12 pentagrammic faces, with five pentagrams meeti ...
. He does not specialize in what is known as "super complex origami", but rather he likes making simple, elegant animals, and modular designs such as
polyhedra
In geometry, a polyhedron (plural polyhedra or polyhedrons; ) is a three-dimensional shape with flat polygonal faces, straight edges and sharp corners or vertices.
A convex polyhedron is the convex hull of finitely many points, not all on t ...
, as well as exploring the mathematics and geometry of origami. A book expressing both approaches is ''Origami for the Connoisseur'' (Kasahara and Takahama), which gathers modern innovations in polyhedral construction, featuring moderately difficult but accessible methods for producing the
Platonic solids
In geometry, a Platonic solid is a convex, regular polyhedron in three-dimensional Euclidean space. Being a regular polyhedron means that the faces are congruent (identical in shape and size) regular polygons (all angles congruent and all edges c ...
from single sheets, and much more.
Kasahara is perhaps origami's most enthusiastic designer and collector of origami models that are variations on a cube, a number of which appear in Vol. 2 of a 2005 three volume work (presently available only in Japanese). Vol. 3 of the same work is devoted to another Kasahara interest: reverse engineering and diagramming classic Japanese origami models pictured in early works, such as zenbazuru (
thousand origami cranes
The crane in Japan is one of the mystical or holy creatures (others include the dragon and the tortoise) and is said to live for a thousand years: That is why cranes are made, one for each year. In some stories it is believed that the 1000 ...
from the ''Hiden Senbazuru Orikata'' of 1797, one of the earliest known origami books), the origami art of folding multiple connected cranes out of a single sheet of paper.
He has written many books, of which ''Origami Omnibus'' is his best known book available in English, and contains many of his models as well as outstanding classics by others.
Bibliography
*''Creative Origami'', Japan Publications, 1967.
*''Origami Made Easy'', Japan Publications, 1973.
*''Origami Omnibus: Paper Folding for Everybody'', Japan Publication, 1988.
*''Origami for the Connoisseur'' (with Toshie Takahama), Japan Publications, 1998.
*''Amazing Origami'', Sterling, 2002.
*''Extreme Origami'', Sterling, 2003.
*''The Art and Wonder of Origami'' Quarry Book, 2005.
*おりがみ新発見〈1〉半開折り・回転折り・非対称の形 日貿出版社 (Spirals & asymmetric shapes) 2005.
*おりがみ新発見〈2〉キューブの世界 (単行本) (Cubes) 2005.
*おりがみ新発見〈3〉古典から最新作まで300年の絵巻 (300-year-old Classics, senbazuru) 2005.
External links
A talk by Kunihiko Kasahara given to the BOS at Bristol in April, 1999
1941 births
Living people
Origami artists
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