Japanese Origami is an art of folding objects out of paper 
without cutting, pasting, or decorating. Its early history 
is not known, though it seems to have developed from the 
older art of folding cloth. In Japan, origami has reached 
its greatest development, with hundreds of traditional folds 
and an extensive literature dealing with the art. Japanese 
folds divide roughly into two categories. They are - figures 
used in ceremonial etiquette such as noshi, folded 
decorations attached to gifts; and birds, animals, fish, 
insects, flowers, human figures, furniture, and other 
objects. Some of the animals have amusing action features. 
The best known is the bird that flaps its wings when its 
tail is pulled and the frog that hops when its back is 
tapped. 

History of Origami
Yoshizawa Akira of Tokyo is considered the greatest of 
modern paper folders. He wrote several books on origami and 
created a large number of new, often fantastically complex, 
figures possessing great realism and delicate beauty using 
the art of origami.
Paper folding also has flourished in Spain and South 
America. Miguel de Unamuno, Spanish writer and philosopher, 
made a hobby of paper folding. He invented many new animal 
constructions. He also wrote Amor y pedagogía, a humorous 
essay on the art way back in 190 2. 
In South America, Vicente Solórzano Sagredo of Argentina was 
the leading expert on paper folding and the author of the 
most comprehensive manuals on the art in Spanish. George 
Rhoads of Evanston, Ill., and Giuseppe Baggi of New York 
also achieved distinction in this art. Apart from the 
Oriental tradition, Friedrich Froebel introduced the folding 
of colored papers into ornamental designs into the 
kindergarten movement that he initiated in Germany in the 
19th century. 
Later, the Bauhaus, a famous German school of design, 
stressed the folding of paper as a method of training 
students for commercial design. The use of folded paper in 
mathematical recreations is similarly independent of 
origami. Particularly intriguing are A.H. Stone's flexagons 
a variety of paper structures that alter their faces in 
curious ways when properly flexed.