As an introduction to Shinobu Gahan's origami workshop, which will feature the making of crane's, or 鶴 (tsuru), we present a brief introduction to origami and it's origins:
According to The Japan Origami Association, origami originated in the Heian era, around 1000BC. The upper classes would wrap presents ornamentally using what we could describe as an ancient form of wrapping paper.
Cranes, or tsuru, are said to live for one thousand years according to Japanese Folklore. In reality, their lifespan is somewhere around fifty years and they have become a symbol of longevity in Japan.
The movie Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes (Sadako no sembazaru) features a girl named Sadako who is diagnosed with Leukaemia and begins to fold one thousand cranes believing, on the suggestion of her friends, that doing so will grant her wish of getting better. Sadly, she reached around six hundred and never finished her task. Her friends made the remainder of the cranes after her death and buried them with her in her grave. It is said that anybody who folds 1,000 cranes will have their wish granted, for example recovery from illness or injury.
Cranes are also a symbol of peace. The 65th anniversary of Hiroshima occurred on the 6th of August and many cranes are made on this day in memory of the people who lost their lives in the bombing that still affects the world today.
See Shinobu's workshop at 1pm on Saturday 21st August in The Nerve Centre.
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