Ochanomizu Origami Kaikan started from the paper-dyeing family business founded by Kosuke Kobayashi, the first generation of the Kobayashi Family located in the Yushima district in 1858(Ansei 5).
Associating with the educational reforms in the Meiji era (1868-1912), he began to make and sell the first colored paper for folding as merchandise to the world. Afterward, Origami Kaikan was established in 1972 as a facility to spread origami as a traditional Japanese artifact.
Origami originated from the old Shinto Ritual and goes on with human history to various fields. From ritual manners then games and current origami styles, now it’s applied to the medical for the bright future and expands to architecture, aerospace technology as origami engineering. I feel it’s my mission that origami preserved by many predecessors should be maintained, conveyed, and progressed by me.
We founded “International Origami Center” a nonprofit organization in 2006, and have been promoting origami by allowing understanding and learning, also contributing to the community with traditional craft origami.
Nowadays Japanese word origami is spelled seven letters ‘ORIGAMI’ which shows there are origami lovers in the world, and it’s not only fun but a good tool in the physiotherapy field.
Accordingly, I agree the legs are the second heart, the fingers are the second brain. Origami is used in our modern daily life with different themes - ‘traditional Japanese culture’ ‘art form with one sheet of paper’ ‘for children and adults, everyone’ Have fun with folding, have a happy time with displaying your origami, and make someone smile by your origami presents. Let’s relax our fingers and do origami together!