Origami 折り紙

Paper itself was invented in China around the 2nd century AD, and reached Japan by way of Buddhist monks in the 6th century. For a long time it stayed a luxury — too costly for anything but ceremony. Early Japanese paper folding, known as orikata, was strictly formal: Shinto weddings used folded paper butterflies to represent the bride and groom, and noble households developed exact folding customs for presenting gifts with the correct etiquette.

It wasn't until the Edo period, roughly 1603 to 1868, when paper became cheaper and more widely available, that folding turned into something people did simply for pleasure. Designs passed down by word of mouth, mother to daughter, generation to generation — which is why only the simplest, most memorable shapes survived long enough to become the classics still folded today. The word "origami" itself wasn't even coined until around 1880; before that, the craft was just called orikata.

The real turning point came in 1954, when Japanese master Akira Yoshizawa published a universal set of folding symbols — the notation still used in diagrams worldwide. For the first time, a fold could be taught without a shared spoken language, turning a regional folk tradition into a craft anyone, anywhere, could pick up from a diagram alone.