OK-01
Crane 鶴
16 creases · 24 steps · level 1
The fold everyone begins with. Ours ends with wings that hold their curve, because 42 gsm kozo holds a crease like linen holds a press.
Paper: 10 sheets + 2 spares
$18
Paper remembers every fold.
We print crease patterns on hand-made 和紙 washi, cut nothing, glue nothing, and teach your hands the rest. Folding kits and slow workshops from two small rooms — Sanjō-dōri, Kyoto and SE Ankeny, Portland.
Kits ship folded flat — obviously. Kyoto ⇄ Portland since 2017.
一枚の紙
The studio rule 折り方
Three lines we never cross
One sheet.
Every model in this studio begins as a single square of Kurotani washi. Nothing is added and nothing is taken away — the bird was in the sheet all along.
No cuts.
A scissor line is a shortcut your hands never learn from. Our patterns fold clean from corner to corner, and the paper keeps its whole memory.
No glue.
Tension holds the crane together — the same tension that holds your attention for the forty quiet minutes it takes to fold one.
Folding kits 折り形
Four birds, beasts and blooms
Difficulty is not a star rating here. It is the crease count, printed on every sheet — count the lines and you know exactly what you are in for.
OK-02
Fox 狐
9 creases · 18 steps · level 2
Fewer creases than the crane, sharper judgement per crease. The ears only stand if your diagonal was honest back at step two.
Paper: 10 sheets + 2 spares
$22
OK-03
Iris 菖蒲
20 creases · 41 steps · level 3
Petal folds, four of them, each one a small act of faith. Wet-fold the last step and the bloom keeps a soft, living edge.
Paper: 8 sheets + 4 spares
$26
OK-04
Dragon 竜
32 creases · 88 steps · level 4
Box-pleated spine, reverse-folded claws, and a jaw that opens. Set aside an evening. Set aside your pride, too — sheet one is a rehearsal.
Paper: 6 sheets + 6 spares
$34
Read the folds
Mountain 山折り
The paper folds away from you. The crease forms a ridge.
Valley 谷折り
The paper folds toward you. The crease forms a trough.
Two line styles, persimmon and indigo, are the entire written language of origami. Every diagram above is set in it — nothing else is needed.
The paper 和紙
The paper is half the model
Our sheets come from the Yamamoto family workshop in Kurotani, a village that has made paper for eight hundred years. Long-fibre kozo, beaten by hand, dyed in small vats.
Kozo natural 楮
42 gsm · unbleached · Kurotani
The workhorse. Takes twenty folds in the same place before it complains.
Kakishibu 柿渋
38 gsm · persimmon tannin · sun-cured
Dyed with fermented persimmon juice. Darkens a shade every year, like a good verdict.
Aizome 藍染
45 gsm · indigo vat · dipped eight times
Eight dips, eight days. Fold a white-bellied crane from the reverse side.
Sakura 桜
40 gsm · blush pigment · spring runs only
Made for six weeks a year while the Kamo river banks bloom. Then it is gone.
Workshops 工房
Slow classes, small tables
Eight seats in Kyoto, ten in Portland. Every seat includes the kit, the spare sheets, and a pot of hojicha. Phones sleep in a paper box by the door.
DateCity
ClassSeats
Price
Sat Sep 12Kyoto
First Crane — beginner8
¥6,500
Sun Sep 20Portland
First Crane — beginner10
$45
Sat Oct 3Kyoto
Iris & wet-folding6
¥9,000
Sun Oct 18Portland
Fox to Dragon — series of fourWaitlist
$160
Sat Nov 7Kyoto
Reading crease patterns6
¥7,500