Noshi

The subject of Noshi is a very large and difficult one. There is quite a lot of information from past ages but considered modern accounts and analyses are hard to come by. There are often, however, brief snippets of information in modern encyclopaedias and collections of Japanese curiosities. I attempted a short account of noshi many years ago (part of an article grandly titled "Paperfolding in Japan"), but I don't seem to have been able to take the subject much further since then.

As a preliminary, it is useful to understand the terms. "NOSHI", so-called, come under the category of folded wrappers or "TSUTSUMI" in Japanese. Formal tsutsumi were used in a ceremonial way, as a form of etiquette for wrapping gifts and especially gifts of flowers. Each kind of flower had its own kind of wrapper, but the distinctions between them varied in very subtle ways. Only a few relics of this old system of etiquette survive today, one of which is the attachement of a "noshi" to a gift in Japan, much in the way that in the West we would attach a gift tag.

In early Japan, it was considered that a gift of abalone meat signified good fortune. The word for abalone in Japanese is "AWABI " and this is the common Japanese name for large marine snails of the family Hakiotidae, of which ten species of different sizes inhabit the Japanese seas. Archaeology shows that abalone has been used in Japan since prehistoric times. Abalone or awabi is still fished extensively for consumption as food. Today, the Japanese eat abalone either boiled or raw, with a dip.

"Noshita awabi" means abalone stretched into a thin strip and then dried in the sun and is the full, but probably now obsolete term. It became "noshi awabi" or just "noshi" From ancient times, the stretched and dried strips of "noshita awabi" or "noshi" were fastened to offerings to the gods. From gifts to the gods, the custom became applied to gifts between people. The origin of this custom is traced to the Buddhist injunction against eating flesh at sad or inauspicious times. So attaching a strip of abalone signified that it _was_ an auspicious or happy occasion.

The noshi awabi was wrapped in heavy white paper folded in a formalised manner. (White paper was deeply revered by the Buddhists, especially as a medium for writing the scriptures.) The wrapped parcel was then (like other tstutsumi) tied with "mizuhiki", a special ceremonial sort of string made from the mulberry tree. There was a particular code of colours and knots which became associated with the etiquette of tsutsumi generally. The usual colours for a noshi were red and white or red.

So it became the custom to attach what came to be known as a "Noshi" to gifts between people. Because noshi awabi is a trifle messy, artificial abalone became substituted for the real thing. Nowadays, if a full-sized noshi is given, a shaped strip of yellow plastic-like paper or just a strip of ordinary yellow paper is used for a formal noshi. Noshi proper are about eight to ten or more inches long, and resemble a narrow fan-shape. Smaller, token versions have evolved which are soewhat simpler. They are common and tiny noshi down to about an inch long can still be bought from shops. Their attachment to gifts has become stereotyped and they are often reduced to just the design of a noshi, printed on an envelope. The ultimate stage of this degeneration is merely to print the character for "noshi" in hiragana script! Except for very formal noshi, the mizuhiki has been reduced to a strip of gold paper across the middle of the noshi, or it may even be merely printed on to the noshi.

So prevalent have noshi in the strict sense of the word, symbolising noshi awabi, become that the term "noshi" has come to be loosely applied to other wrappers, especially the formal wrappers for flowers seen in such books as Kayaragusa (incorrectly known because of an error as "Kan no mado"). These wrappers have the same sort of fan-shape as a noshi, so it is understandable how this has happened, despite the fact that, strictly speaking, the word "noshi" is inappropriate for anything other than dried abalone. The term "noshi tsutsumi" is sometimes seen.

The term "Noshi" has also come to be applied not only to the formal fan-shaped wrappers, but as a generic term to wrappers of other shapes and decorative envelopes for gifts in general, but I believe that this is a western tendency and the Japanese would still use the word "tsutsumi" or other terms more appropriate for envelopes. The Japanese tend to translate the word "tsutsumi" into English as "wrappers".

BETR0THAL GIFTS are another facet of the subject of Japanese wrappers. They are like symbolic wedding gifts wrapped up in the manner of formal tsutsumi. A full- sized Noshi in the strict sense of the word may itself be part of the collection Where appropriate, another sort of gift, perhaps money, will be wrapped in a rectangular wrapper, like a flat envelope. There does not appear to be a rigidly specified list of items. One example would be chopsticks or perhaps a box of chopsticks. But the actual gift is often now omitted and the symbolic wrapping itself has become all important.. The wrappers are a very elaborate version of ordinary "tstutsumi" and may be purchased ready-made in some specialist shops in Japan. When I was in Kyoto, I saw a whole variety of types. Some, I thought were overdone and, surprisingly, for anything from Japan, rather tasteless. Some even looked like flamboyant Christmas tinsel decorations.

Before exchanging the betrothal gifts, the families of the bride and bridegroom agree on whether to exchange sets of five, seven or nine tsutsumi. (Always an odd number, for even numbers are not considered to be fortunate.) Over the years I have made a small collection of these betrothal gifts, but there is still so much that I do not understand about them. I shall welcome corrections to this account. it is very sad tho think that this tradition is slowly dying out.

Weddings are very popular in Japan, perhaps even more so than in the West. As in the West, books and magazines about weddings are very popular and can be found on the news stands. Sometimes these magazine-like books contain a section about betrothal tsutsumi. Before I went to Japan, I saw one owned by Paulo Mulatinho. I have tried to obtain a copy, but have not managed to do so and it was nowhere to be seen when I got to Japan. Presumably it was only a passing magazine-like publication.

So far as I know, the only book to deal specifically with Noshi in English is the one by Honda that has previously been mentioned:

Isao Honda: Noshi: Classic Origami in Japan
Japan Publications Company, Rutland, Vermont, A5 Paperback, 1964.

This book can only be obtained, if at all, second-hand. I do not think that it was a very prolific publication, so it is probably very rare. It deals with much of the subject of Japanese wrappers and envelopes generally. I have always found it a confusing book as Honda's definitions are not always clear and he tends to run one subject runs into another without making the distinctions clear. He includes informal wrappers, "Goma shio" wrappers (wrappers for small symbolic "return gifts"), tato (paper purses) and a wrapper depicting the Horaizan or sacred mountain which was a recent subject for enquiry in Origami-L. He doesn't cover the elaborate tsutsumi used for symbolic betrothal gifts, but pads his material out with such things as traditional paper cranes and water lilies.

There are several books on Japanese wrappers in Japanese. The first, by Yoshihide Momotani has an introduction, index and subject headings in English:

Yoshihide Momotani: "Wrapping Origami" (Japanese language).
Seibundo Shinko sha, A5 Paperback, 1993.

This book covers a wide range of wrappers, formal and informal with clear diagrams. It also has mecho and ocho butterflies. An interesting little book, probably still in print.

The leading Japanese student of Tsustsumi is Makio Araki. He gave a talk at the Second International Meeting of Scientific Origami at Otsu in Japan in November, 1994 and also had on display a wide collection of small-sizes reproductions of many different tstutsumi. The following is his scholarly work on the subject:

Makio Araki: Nippon No Origami Shu. ("Japanese Origami")
Published by Tankou sha 1995. A4 sized hardback. No ISBN.

It is probably still in print. I bought my copy at Kinokinuja Bookstore in New York.

Another more popular book by the same author is:

Makio Araki: Oru Tsutsu Mu.
Published by Tak Ko sha. B5 sized hardback. Third edition, 1995 ISBN 4 - 473 - 01134 - 8.

This is somewhat smaller than A4 and has a more "popular" approach than the last. It is very well illustrated with many beautiful coloured photographs and covers the whole range of formal and informal tsutsumi, including betrothal tsutsumi. By far the best general book on the subject and worth finding even if you don't read Japanese.

Eiji Nakamura; Atarashii Girei Origami. ( "New Formal Origami".)
Published by Japan Publications, 197f. A4 paperback. No ISBN.

This book is by an author who is better known for his books on paper aeroplanes. He folds his wrappers from A4 paper. Whether or not this is historically as legitimate as folding the wrappers from square paper, I do not know. Formal and semi-formal tsutsumi. Books on formal tsutsumi have been published for many years in Japan. I was fortunate to be given a photocopy of such a book some twenty years ago. It is "Hoketsu No Ki " by Ise Teijo in two volumes, the first containing tsutsumi and the second, mizuhiki knots. I have read that it was the first book on paperfolding in Japanese, but this is certainly not true, unless perhaps, the 1865 edition was merely a reprint of something much earlier. It is mainly text, with illustrations of completed tsutsumi and knots and does not contain the clear instructions for folding or tying that a paperfolder of today would expect.

The subject of noshi is one of those facets of origami which never cease to delight. There cannot be many pastimes which are so unexpectedly rich in so many aspects not only of human diversity but also of artistic and scientific interest as that of paperfolding. David Lister.