Origami History before Yoshizawa

Thanks for this interesting piece, Andrew!

Here is another line to pursue.
At an exhibition on Korean shamanism at the National Folk Museum of Korea, which I was lucky enough to see in in Seoul in December 2011, there were several examples of ritual uses of paper folds and paper cutting for costumes and decorations. You can see the traditional paper hat and paper flowers in several illustrations in this issue of the Korean Art Society newsletter which I found online:

Korean Art Society 2009 newsletter: www.duke.edu/~myhan/kaf0911.pdf
search for "Buddha Trinity" a "Great God of Protection" and "paper flower"

(The dates of the paintings aren't clear in the article. The Korean Shamanism tradition continues into the 21st century, in and out of Korea).

Karen Reeds
karen.reeds [at] verizon.net
Princeton Public Library Origami Group