Akira Yoshizawa

Akira Yoshizawa was a Japanese origami artist who is widely regarded as the grandmaster of origami. He is credited with transforming origami from a simple craft to a living art form. He created more than 50,000 origami models, of which only a few hundred were diagrammed in his 18 books. He also developed the Yoshizawa–Randlett system of notation for origami folds, which has become the standard for most paperfolders. He acted as an international cultural ambassador for Japan throughout his career, and received the Order of the Rising Sun, one of the highest honors bestowed in Japan, in 1983. He died on his 94th birthday from complications of pneumonia.