Principles of Hanakami 📔

Origin of Hanakami

All forms of expression including origami respond to the times in which they exist and convey messages to people and society. It can therefore be expected that these forms of expression evolve.

I am also pursuing a new style of origami that is unique to the time in which I live now. I will always engage in hanakami energetically to communicate my thoughts, and share my experience with those who are open to understanding it.

Principles of Hanakami is my consolidation of the core ideals behind the art of hanakami, inspired by my woodwork teacher's rules of woodworking, and the seminal work of Teshigahara Sofu (勅使河原 蒼風) - The Fifty Principlese of Sogetsu (草月五十則). 

In a way, the practice of hanakami came about as an unintended consequence of pursuing something else in the beginning. It's as described by Buckminister Fuller in his concept of precession, and The 90-Degree Rule. Fuller argued that the most important transformations and benefits in the universe are precessional—they are the valuable secondary effects of actions taken for other reasons. 

The Principles as Pillars of Instruction and Learning

I will always remember the story my woodwork teacher told me about his commandments of furniture making. He said that a printed copy used to hang on the door of his workshop, and whenever he would correct or guide his students during the lessons, he would point at which one(s) of the commandments his students had violated.

I started writing these principles as a way to help my own teaching and learning, and have made various efforts to ensure that they apply not only to hanakami and origami, but that you can also gain some benefit from them regardless of the type of practice you pursue, and how you wish to progress.

For beginners

• Beautiful flowers do not always make beautiful hanakami - it is assumed that we add value to the work that we do, but the spirit of hanakami teaches us to give materials a second life without robbing them of their first life. And as there is also no sure fire way to guarantee success in making hanakami, nor can you always preserve the colours and the structure perfectly, students should embrace the mujo and hakani nature of this practice.

• Precision, accuracy and speed all take time to attain

• One clean crease is usually better than several small ones; use less folds for bigger features, and more folds for small features

• More details require more folds and bigger size petal; smaller size models are limited by less folds and thinner/less dense petal

• You start with the same amount of paper as you end up with it - the constraints are contained within the transformation process

• The paper and crease lines on the diagrams are perfect - allow for the difference when working with real paper

• Lines and vertices are your primary design tools

Spirit of Practice

• Communicate with the flowers as you work with them - you should realize that even the materials that you have worked with before speak differently depending on the time and occasion.

• Crease by sight, then by sight and touch, then by touch alone - this is the progression for dexterity

• There are two types of complexity, one in which the whole is not an obvious sum of its parts, and one in which it is; you can create complexity by combining and executing simple elements well, or by introducing elements haphazardly

The Do's and Don'ts of Practice

• Success comes from those who take elaborate trouble with the preparation and the after-care as much as the folding

• Hanakami may be comparable to woodwork, sculpture or painting (see A sensuous experience)

Essence of Creativity

• Cultivate an eye for appreciation and a hand for creation. A sense of balance is essential. This can be achieved only through constant practice