FOLDS OF FUN. Despite the wind and cold rain, the workshop tables at the Consulate-General of Japan in Portland’s 19th annual Origami Workshop were full of participants. In the beginner room, children made animal finger puppets, Santa Claus faces, and airplanes. (AR Photo/Julie Stegeman)

From The Asian Reporter, V17, #50 (December 11, 2007), page 16.

By Julie Stegeman

Patience and precision: these are the characteristics needed to master origami, the ancient Japanese art of creating beautiful things out of paper by intricate folding. These characteristics were on display at the 19th annual Origami Workshop, which took place on Sunday, December 2 at Two World Trade Center in downtown Portland. The event, sponsored by the Consulate-General of Japan in Portland, gave Portlanders of all ages an opportunity to express their inner artist by providing materials, instructions, and, most importantly, knowledgeable volunteers to guide participants through the folding process.

The workshop was arranged among three rooms, each catering to a different skill level — beginner, intermediate, and advanced. In each room, participants built their skills as they were challenged with a variety of shapes to fold. Tables were stocked with paper in a rainbow of colors and written instructions, and friendly volunteers very patiently walked everyone through the procedure fold by fold until, amazingly enough, even this distinctly "left-brained" reporter was able to create recognizable shapes.

Despite the wind and cold rain outside, the tables were full of participants. In the beginner room, children were busy making animal finger puppets, Santa Claus faces, and airplanes. The intermediate room was popular with older children and adults who folded colorful baskets, samurai helmets, and windmills. In the advanced room, people focused on creating irises, jumping frogs, and one of the best known origami figures, the paper crane.

Since ancient times, the crane has been viewed by the Japanese people as a symbol of long life and good fortune. More recently, the paper crane has become an international symbol of peace, in part due to the story of Sadako Sasaki. Sadako was a girl who lived through the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, only to develop leukemia nine years later at the age of 11.

According to Japanese tradition, if a person folds a thousand paper cranes, they will be granted a wish. Sadako wished the gods would grant her good health, and she began the process of folding a thousand cranes. Sadly, she died at the age of 12, but her classmates, inspired by her courage, collected donations from schools throughout Japan to create a monument to children who were victims of the atomic bomb.

In 1958, a statue of Sadako holding a golden crane was unveiled in Hiroshima Peace Park. Today, people all over the world fold paper cranes and send them to Sadako’s monument. Closer to the Pacific Northwest, there is also a statue of Sadako in Seattle. Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr tells the story of her short life.

Volunteers at the Origami Workshop came from many walks of life and provided enthusiastic and helpful support. Ms. Manami Imaoka’s Japanese language class at Jesuit High School provided three volunteers. One of those volunteers, Ted Younie, is a 16-year-old Japanese language student whose mother taught him to fold cranes when he was a child. The school’s Japanese National Honor Society has undertaken the project of folding a thousand paper cranes for "B Positiv III," a charity art show benefitting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The students have crafted about 750 cranes for the January event.

Another volunteer, Deborah Weekley, was at the workshop with her husband, Rev. David Weekley, the pastor of a large Japanese-American congregation at Epworth United Methodist Church. Deborah became interested in origami as a way to help immerse herself in the culture of the congregation and to build upon her Native American artistic traditions.

The Consulate-General of Japan in Portland sponsors the Origami Workshop annually to provide an opportunity for the public to learn more about Japanese culture. The Japan-America Society of Oregon, Portland General Electric, and the World Trade Center also support the workshop.

To learn more, visit <www.portland.us.emb-japan.go.jp/en/index.html>.