The crane is one of the classic patterns in Japanese origami and when folded up correctly, looks like the picture to the left. I used to fold mine using notebook paper so my cranes always had blue lines running through them :-)
In Japanese culture, the crane symbolizes many things such as peace, longevity, and fortune. In Japan, it is commonly said that folding 1000 paper origami cranes makes a person's wish come true. This makes them popular gifts for special friends and family.
In my hands, the paper crane doesn't really look like much but in the hands of an origami master like Robert J. Lang, the simple origami crane is elevated to new heights of beauty. Here's his version which was folded from a single sheet of paper.
Robert J. Lang's crane is rendered so beautifully that it puts the simple Japanese crane pattern, that we all follow, to shame. If you know how to read origami crease patterns and you want to fold this crane, click here for the pattern.
Robert J. Lang is a fascinating person. He started out his professional career as a physicist and an engineer.....a real geek. But somewhere along the way, he got hooked onto origami and is now one of the preeminent artists in the discipline. I first heard about him back in 2007 shortly after I returned from my trip to Egypt and Jordan. My friend, Bob, had given me a copy of the Smithsonian Magazine. It had article in it on Petra that Bob thought I would be interested in becauseI had visited it earlier in the year. As I thumbed through the magazine, looking for the article on Petra, I came across the article on Robert J. Lang. I had no idea who he was but of course, they had pictures of his work in the article and I must admit, I was completely mesmerized by what I saw. Forget the words. His creations were far more captivating to look at. Having folded a simple crane myself, it was just amazing to me how he could take a sheet of paper and create a three dimensional rendering of so something as complex as beetle or a moose. I found the article online and here's the link. If you want to learn more about Robert J. Lang and see photos of his origami creations, click here to access his personal website.
Here's another version of the paper crane. This was folded by two artists - Roman Diaz and Daniel Naranjo. As beautiful as Robert J. Lang's rendition is, I think this one is even more beautiful. The figure is more a delicate structure, less stiff and there's more grace and movement to the form. Almost feels like this bird is ready to take flight.
But beauty of the simple paper crane aside, as I was researching the history of origami, I stumbled across a very heartwarming story about a little girl named Sadako Sasaki and one thousand paper cranes.
Sadako Sasaki was two years old when the Allied forces dropped the atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945. In an instant, the entire city was obliterated and on that tragic day, 140,000 civilians were killed.
The Sasaki family lived one mile from the spot where the bomb went off but Sadako and her parents managed to survive the nuclear attack. But they could not avoid breathing the contaminated air that blanketed the city.Sadako entered the Hiroshima Red Cross hospital for treatment where she spent her dying days. A version of the story goes that in August 1955, Sadako's best friend Chizuko Hamamoto came to the hospital to visit and cut a piece of paper into a square to fold it into a paper crane in reference to the ancient Japanese story that promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by a crane.
The story goes that Sadako fell short of her goal of folding 1,000 cranes, having folded only 644 before her death in October 1955 and that her friends completed the 1,000 and buried them all with her.
After her death, Sadako's friends and schoolmates published a collection of letters in order to raise funds to build a memorial to her and all of the children who had died from the effects of the atomic bomb. In 1958, a statue of Sadako holding a paper crane was unveiled in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. Now, when I see that statue in the park, I will know the heartwarming story behind it.
When I got to the end of Sadako's story, I decided to not go any further in my research on the history of origami. No need to read more. This story of a girl and a thousand papecranes was all I needed to know.
