Origami Shuko may have been another book that suffered the same fate. When we analyzed it with Joan Sallas a few years ago, and he saw that the first pages featured two children holding the imperial flag, his reaction wasn’t surprise but relief, as he understood why the book had disappeared from circulation. Although it had been published in 1944 (Honda sometimes stated 1941), no copies remained, and it was presumed that they had vanished in the Tokyo bombing. However, years later, Akira Yoshizawa sent Gershon Legman a photocopy of the entire book. This is the copy now housed in the Museo del Origami in Colonia, the same one we reviewed with Joan Sallas. In an email exchange, Joan summarized his view: "A book that starts with the imperial flag of fascist Japan could not have been sold after 1945. Honda might have destroyed them. Or perhaps American authorities forced the publisher to destroy them. Something similar happened with German origami books after losing the war. Yoshizawa swallowed the bitterness, but the resentment lingered. Over the years, he saw the success Honda was achieving while he couldn’t publish a single book abroad." There it was: the key to the mystery of the book's disappearance and the anger Yoshizawa felt as he watched his first significant collaboration vanish.
Thank you for raising this subject here. It is of course possible that Joan Sallas is correct, but as far as I know we have not been able to establish that 'Origami Shuko' was banned by the occupying authorities. What we do know, because Honda says so in the book, is that he had difficulty bringing it to publication in the first place because it fell foul of Japanese censorship. If Joan is correct, then it may be the only origami book to be censored twice by two different governments in the same country!
The ‘Battleship’ design in Murray and Rigney’s "Fun with Paper Folding" published in 1928, and in "Aus papier: gefaltet, gefalzt, gekleb" in 1940 has been also published in:
- The Danish book "Folderier" only in the 3rd (and last) edition in 1947 as we can see via
- The German book by Walter Sperling "Papier-Spiele" in 1955 and his English translation "How to Make Things Out of Paper" in 1961. In both case you can his drawing on the front cover.
Oy vey. Of course the Third Reich wanted its boys to play soldiers to prepare for their future. One wonders if there was any overtly anti-semitic origami for children. There certainly was propaganda of this kind aimed at kids.
Fascist or not, it's all part of the history of paper folding. Thanks, David, for posting.
I believe that most youth organisations in Germany were bundled into the Hitler Youth program during the thirties and it is of course possible that paperfolding was occasionally included among their activities. I have not come across any overtly anti-semitic paperfolds, or interpretations of paperfolds, in the literature, although it is, of course, possible that they existed. Paperfolding has certainly been used for many other kinds of political, social and religious propaganda over the years.
Origami Shuko may have been another book that suffered the same fate. When we analyzed it with Joan Sallas a few years ago, and he saw that the first pages featured two children holding the imperial flag, his reaction wasn’t surprise but relief, as he understood why the book had disappeared from circulation. Although it had been published in 1944 (Honda sometimes stated 1941), no copies remained, and it was presumed that they had vanished in the Tokyo bombing. However, years later, Akira Yoshizawa sent Gershon Legman a photocopy of the entire book. This is the copy now housed in the Museo del Origami in Colonia, the same one we reviewed with Joan Sallas. In an email exchange, Joan summarized his view: "A book that starts with the imperial flag of fascist Japan could not have been sold after 1945. Honda might have destroyed them. Or perhaps American authorities forced the publisher to destroy them. Something similar happened with German origami books after losing the war. Yoshizawa swallowed the bitterness, but the resentment lingered. Over the years, he saw the success Honda was achieving while he couldn’t publish a single book abroad." There it was: the key to the mystery of the book's disappearance and the anger Yoshizawa felt as he watched his first significant collaboration vanish.
Thank you for raising this subject here. It is of course possible that Joan Sallas is correct, but as far as I know we have not been able to establish that 'Origami Shuko' was banned by the occupying authorities. What we do know, because Honda says so in the book, is that he had difficulty bringing it to publication in the first place because it fell foul of Japanese censorship. If Joan is correct, then it may be the only origami book to be censored twice by two different governments in the same country!
The ‘Battleship’ design in Murray and Rigney’s "Fun with Paper Folding" published in 1928, and in "Aus papier: gefaltet, gefalzt, gekleb" in 1940 has been also published in:
- The Danish book "Folderier" only in the 3rd (and last) edition in 1947 as we can see via
https://papirfoldning.dk/historie/folderier_en.html
- The German book by Walter Sperling "Papier-Spiele" in 1955 and his English translation "How to Make Things Out of Paper" in 1961. In both case you can his drawing on the front cover.
Oy vey. Of course the Third Reich wanted its boys to play soldiers to prepare for their future. One wonders if there was any overtly anti-semitic origami for children. There certainly was propaganda of this kind aimed at kids.
Fascist or not, it's all part of the history of paper folding. Thanks, David, for posting.
I believe that most youth organisations in Germany were bundled into the Hitler Youth program during the thirties and it is of course possible that paperfolding was occasionally included among their activities. I have not come across any overtly anti-semitic paperfolds, or interpretations of paperfolds, in the literature, although it is, of course, possible that they existed. Paperfolding has certainly been used for many other kinds of political, social and religious propaganda over the years.
Thank you for writing about this German book. I always enjoy hearing about a model such as the battleship made with king crown.
You write “There are no Nazi symbols in the book”. Did you happen to miss the swastika on the tail of the plane?
Yes, I did! Thank you for pointing this out. I will amend the post. Perhaps I need to revisit my optician ...