The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Students have fun with Origami

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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Students have fun with Origami

Staff Reporter

Workshop by Tamil Nadu Centre of ABK AOTS Dosokai

— Photo: R. Ragu

Paper craft: Students displaying their creative Origami designs to instructor Eriko Tanaka at a workshop on ‘simple Origami techniques’ organised by Tamil Nadu Centre of ABK AOTS Dosokai in Chennai on Saturday.

CHENNAI: It is difficult to imagine folding papers for a hobby. But square sheets of coloured papers can sometimes substitute for expensive toys, if one knows what to do with them.

That was the case for a group of children from various Chennai Corporation higher secondary schools who participated in a workshop on ‘simple Origami techniques’ organised by Tamil Nadu Centre of ABK AOTS Dosokai here on Saturday.

Origami is a Japanese art form and it literally means ‘paper folding’. It is about crafting representations of real world objects just by folding paper in geometrical patterns. At the workshop, a demonstration on various shapes which can be created out of the most ordinary looking ‘play object’ was given by instructors from the Japanese Language School and the kids were encouraged to duplicate what the instructors were doing.

Eriko Tanaka, one of the instructors and a native Japanese teacher, said “Every child in Japan who is in kindergarten or elementary school learns Origami. I used to do it for about 10 minutes everyday when I was young.”

She added that Origami improved hand-eye coordination and played an instrumental role in the development of motor skills in a child. The director of the Language School at the Centre, Nirmala Bhaskar, said that children take to other cultures enthusiastically. “We can learn a lot from other cultures and Art is a medium to facilitate this exchange.”

Students were enthusiastic, “I think the Japanese name for this is Echo Emo,” said Prathap, a class seven student. “I never thought folding paper can be this fun. I am going decorate my room with just paper,” he said. According to Ms. Bhaskar, were it not for cultural exchange programmes many of the children would never get a chance to get exposed to the wider world. An Origami competition was held at the end of the workshop. The prize winners were adjudged according to the quality and quantity of Origami models made within a time limit of 15 minutes.

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