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The Paperfolding of Mitsuhira Uchiyama
 

Mitsuhiro Uchiyama is also known as Michio Uchiyama.

Sources

There is mention of Michio Uchiyama in David Lister's article on 'Tato Folds' (undated)

'The origin of this can be traced in part to Mitsuhiro (Michio) Uchiyama (1878-1967), the father of Kosho Uchiyama, who died recently. Michio was a prolific writer of books on paperfolding, but he deliberately employed styles of folding with cutting, including one style that continued the kind of folding shown in the Kyaragusa (Kan no mado) of the mid 19th Century. However, towards the end of his life, he developed a new and very different passion for folding "tato" which did not employ cutting. His folds have been collected together in a splendid coloured book called "Origami flower Patterns" by Sori Yahagi, published in Japanese in 1988. Michio Uchiyama folds (without cutting) a very varied series of tato with four, six and eight sides. The beauty is in the folded tops of the tato which are patterned and interlaced in many ways. He uses two or more sheets of paper for his models, coloured differently on each side of the paper and the cumulative decorative effect is stunning. Most of the tato fold flat, but towards the end of the book, some are true boxes with walled sides. It does not appear, however, that Michio Uchiyama, himself uses the twisting process to collapse the tato which took the form of boxes.'

and in his article on 'Cutting in Origami' (undated)

'Kosho Uchiyama's father, Michio Uchiyama was also a paperfolder, who produced several books on the subject. A book of his folds was published in 1931 under the title of "Origami Kyo Hon" by Mizuhiro Shiki. It is largely a collection of figures in the Chushingura tradition, using extensive cuts. Michio Uchiyama later developed a particular style of folding which used very heavy incisions into the paper, more complicated than in Chushingura Orikata or Kayaragusa. He said that this enabled the paper to be folded with the least wastage of paper. The style is known as "Kirikomi Origami". He published book in this style, although I do not have the date of it immediately to hand.'

 

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Chronology

1878

Michio Uchiyama was born in 1878.

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1933

Publication of Michio Uchiyama's book 'Origami-Kyohon'.

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1935

Publication of Michio Uchiyama's book 'Shin'an Origami Orikata Zukai' (New Origami Folding Diagrams)

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1962

Publication of Michio Uchiyama's book 'Sosaku Origami' (Creative Origami).

Isao Honda's 'The World of Origami' contains a Bibliographical Note which mentions this work:

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1964

A profile by Peter Van Note of 'three generations of paperfolders - the family Uchiyama' - grandmother, father and son - appeared in Vol 4: Issue 1 of 'The Origamian' for Spring 1964:

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1967

Michio Uchiyama died on September 22nd 1967 (see article below).

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'The Origamian' Vol 7: Issue 3 of Winter 1967 contains an article by Toshie Takahama titled 'Origami in Japan Today' in which Michio Uchiyama is mentioned.

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