This is the first comprehensive survey of the extraordinary work of Akira Yoshizawa, who is widely acknowledged to be the father of modern origami. This book presents Yoshizawa's own collection of over 60 models folded by the master himself along with instructional drawings and texts from his private collectionumost of them published here for the very first time. Yoshizawa was an avid innovator who played a seminal role in the "rebirth" of origami in the modern world. He served as a bridge between past and presentbetween the ancient traditional craft and the development of origami as a modern practiceboth in terms of inventing new techniques and in preserving the traditional Japanese forms of origami. Above all, he elevated origami to the status of a true art. It is largely due to his work that origami today is practiced in every country of the world and has a huge international following. Photographs of the models were taken expressly for the book by Kazuo Hamada, a leading Japanese art photographer.