Tribute To Origami

Folded &and  Photgraphed by JM Uvais

Today is the 101^st birth anniversary of Origami Grandmaster Akira Yoshizawa who passed away on his 94^th Birthday in 2005. This quiet gentleman who revived the ancient Japanese art of paper folding or origami (which is a household name now) was also a Cultural Ambassador of Japan. In 1983 Yoshizawa was honoured with Japan’s Order of The Rising Sun. Google, in the company's grand style  has  also paid homage to this grand master by creating  an origami doodle on its home page.

My friend Uvais first mentioned this national treasure of Japan to me while commenting on a (sparrow I think) origami folded by  this lifelong friend. As it has been my habit, I looked up more about this Japanese grandmaster and I was awestruck by the realistic and diverse folding Yoshizawa has created in his lifelong journey in paper folding!.

Paper folding or origami which is more precise and sweet, is known to reduce tension and is an excellent way to relax at the end of the day. We cannot deny that happiness lies in noticing and giving importance to small details of our daily life. Bread may feed our body while art, poetry and our hobbies like paper folding, photography, writing and various other forms of light activities feed our souls with much needed energy.

The German paper and paper products company PWA, to commemorate the company’s 100^th anniversary, has donated a fountain to the town of Mannheim. Bronze sculptures modeled like origami works, Papyrus Brunnen or papyrus wells or perhaps paper wells is an excellent way for a paper manufacturing company to honour itself with this creative nod to the gentle art of origami.

The above photo and origami hummingbird was folded and photographed and very kindly dedicated to me by my brother Mohamed Uvais who shares my fascination with hummingbirds. My supplication to our Creator is that Uvais sees a real live ‘ flying jewel ‘ . Brother, thank you for honoring me with this folding and also thank you for permission to use this photograph here.  May you live long, may you go on folding, writing and photo shooting for many many years to come.  I am your proud fan. Here is a link to Uvais's works;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmustudio/6853363159/in/set-72157613982548899/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmustudio/6838236512/in/photostream

Thank You!