My Favorite Origami Books (and why they're significant)

Origami books are pretty great, I think. They've largely been overshadowed in the modern age, ever since that Internet thing got popular (whatever that is). But for a while, they were the best –and often, only– method for origami knowledge to spread around, mostly from around the 1980s to the early 2000s. (At least, this is true in the Western world.  A lot of origami publishers in Japan are around today. Big surprise there.)

So here's my appreciation post. Five origami books that I'm particularly fond of. I've put most of these on because of personal experiences, so this is going to be a pretty subjective ranking.  But then again, what rankings aren't?

(Okay, maybe that's a bad question. Lots of rankings aren't subjective. But you know what I mean-let's get on with the list.)

5. Origami from Angelfish to Zen, by Peter Engel

I think I was... ten? Eleven? Somewhere in that time interval, my dad bought this book for me. I don't think I truly appreciated it until years later. The main thing I liked about it was the knight on horseback, which I always folded pretty badly. (Maybe I should try it again. Huh.)  The really interesting stuff was pretty boring to me until I got older. In case you've never read this book, the first half doesn't actually contain any instructions. Instead, it's a series of essays on origami: the art, the science, the dual processes of discovery and creation, and even a rare interview with Akira Yoshizawa, father of modern origami. This was actually the main inspiration for my first essay on this blog, Origami: An Art, a Science, or Both?

So, this is a really interesting book, packed with interesting thoughts on the creation process. I love it. Still, it's topped by the other books on the list.

4. Origami Polyhedra Design, by John Montroll

I've always loved geometry. Maybe that's why I chose to become an origami artist in the first place. Origami Polyhedra Design, in terms of how long I've owned them, is the oldest book on this list. Polyhedra are the three-dimensional equivalents of polygons (3-D shapes composed of flat polygonal faces), and they're quite unique among things you can fold in origami. Lots of them are modular (multiple small pieces of paper, locked together to form a larger shape). But Montroll goes the extra mile and makes them all in the fu-setsu sei-hokkei ichi-mai ori style– that is, from a single uncut square. Each and every one is amazing and inventive. I made tons of these as a kid, and while they're not really my thing anymore, they will always hold a special place in my heart.

Fantastic, unique, lots of nostalgia. If you want to buy this yourself, I will warn you that it's pretty heavy on the math, mostly in the first section about polyhedra design. On to the next one:

3. Advanced Origami, by Michael LaFosse and Richard Alexander

From pure mathematics, to pure artistry. The models in Advanced Origami are advanced not in terms of technical difficulty, but artistic difficulty.  Like the previous ones, Advanced Origami contains more than just instructions. This one talks about how to bring artistry into origami, like wet-folding and choosing high-quality paper. The book asks you: What makes your creations unique? What transforms origami from a craft into an art? How can you turn a lifeless, flat square into something more than that?

This book is also the only one in my top 5 to actually talk about paper itself. And for a good reason: The people behind this, Michael LaFosse and Richard Alexander, run the Origamido Studio, famed for their legendary Origamido paper. This is quite possibly the best origami paper ever made, and it's used by the best origami artists in the world to create models that are both artistically and technically complex. I have some, and I'm terrified of using any more out of fear that I'll screw something up horribly and waste it. They also give you instructions for making your own paper, probably because they want us to stop asking for theirs.

So, very good. Covers stuff that most other books don't bother to talk about. Invaluable for dedicated folders, and worth checking out for casual ones.

2. Origami Design Secrets, by Robert J. Lang

If technical origami had a Bible, or a Euclid's Elements, or a Das Kapital, this would probably be it. Robert Lang's text is 900 pages of origami, more origami, and math. Lots and lots of math. In fact, I take back what I said about Origami Polyhedra Design, because this one goes deeper, gets more involved, and straight up invents new concepts to talk about the mathematics behind origami. This isn't really an origami book so much as an origami textbook: a step-by-step guide, in fifteen chapters, on how to actually design origami models. That's right, creating your own origami models. With math, no less. (This is something I'm still not very good at.) This goes through everything from the classic bases, to molecules, to tree theory, to uniaxial box pleating, and I'm sorry I can't explain those words because I'd be here all day trying to recap this book.

So, it weighs a ton. It's horrendously complicated. And I can't recommend it highly enough. If you're interested in actually buying this, I'd recommend purchasing it alongside Advanced Origami. The science and the art of origami make a pretty good combo.

And finally, my first choice:

  1. Works of Satoshi Kamiya, by Satoshi Kamiya

This is an interesting one.

Up until now, every single one of the origami books has been more than an origami book. They've all had sections about other things, like math, or art, or reflections on origami creation itself, to distinguish them from the others. This isn't like that. It's just an origami book. Not much special about it.

 It's also not that special among normal origami books. It's not about, say, polyhedra, or action origami, or flowers, or African animals. It's just a Satoshi Kamiya collection. And it's not even a unique Satoshi Kamiya collection: there are two sequels (both of which I actually own), containing his more mature (and arguably better) works.

So why do I like this book, exactly?

I got this when I was maybe nine, the summer before 4th grade (that's in the American school system). I was instantly hooked by the cover–there's a dragon that looks like that? And it was awesome. I spent the next several years trying to fold a suitable rendition of it, and I think I got pretty close with this one. But more importantly, it sent me on a journey. For me, this was the gateway into the world of complex origami. This showed me exactly what origami could be, what it could create. And that changed me. It started me on a path of discovery, of creation, and a heck of a lot of fun. Works of Satoshi Kamiya hooked me, and I've been on one long, wonderful journey ever since.

Works of Satoshi Kamiya is just an origami book. And that's all it ever needed to be.