User talk:Jashwant singh1

                                                  BEFORE ORIGAMI 
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                
Some say origami originated in China around 2000 years ago. But it is probably wrong. This opinion is based on the conjecture that origami started right after the invention of paper, for which we have no evidence. The paper of Former Han dynasty shows no trace of origami.

The Chinese character for paper, zhi, originally stood for writing material made of silk. The origin of the Japanese word for paper, kami, is said to be birch tree, kaba, or strips of wood or bamboo, kan. Both of them were also writing material. These suggest that paper was primarily writing material, not folding. Others say origami originated from Japan in Heian era. Again, it is probably wrong. They refer to a story of Abe-no Seimei who made a paper bird and turned it to a real one, or another story about Fujiwara-no Kiyosuke who sent his ex-girlfriend a fake frog. There is no reason, however, for believing that they folded paper to make them. In Japan, we use wrapping paper called tatogami or tato. Today we mainly wrap kimono with it. It actually dates back to Heian era. But it is by no means an example of origami, since it is folded just squarely. We use paper strips, shide or heisoku, and paper dolls, hitogata, in Shinto. They are also old. However, they were never made of paper in ancient Japan. In addition, they are not necessarily folded even now. We can see no relationship between Japanese religion and the origin of origami. The Japanese words for paper and gods have the same spelling, kami. But their pronunciation were different in old Japanese. We use the word origami from Heian era in Japan. But it originally refers to a form of writing. An origami is a landscape piece of paper folded in half latitudinally. We usually write letters or lists on it. In today's Japan, origami-tsuki (with origami) means authentic because connoisseurs write their appraisal on the origami since Edo era. We did not call paper folding origami in Japan until Showa era. Origami was called "orisue" or "orikata" in Edo era, and "orimono" from the end of Edo era to the early Showa era.