Why did origami start?

Answer 1

Origami is most commonly considered to be the art of paper folding. It is an ancient art form, at least thousands of years old, probably developed not long after paper itself was invented. And as with many ancient art forms, no one knows exactly why origami started, or even in what culture it started. While the word Origami is Japanese in origin, and the craft is often believed to have originate in Japan on the basis of very old texts that show origami diagrams, that is not known for a certainty. We know that, in Japan at least, paper folding started at least thousands of years ago, and its origin may have been linked to teaching children techniques they could later apply to complex knots and folds in formal clothing that was worn at the time. I think it's reasonable to speculate that origami ultimately started because of the human desire to be creative in every possible way. Some unsung individual thought to express themselves through this craft of folding paper into some representation, in the same way some unknown individual first thought to express themselves by arranging words in a pleasing rhythm to form poetry.