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What evidence shows that paper folding was part of Japanese culture in the 1600s?
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origami
An origami crane.
While there is no hard evidence of origami existing before 1600, the practice was clearly well-ingrained in Japanese culture by the late 17th century. The primary evidence for this is a short poem written in 1680 by the poet and novelist Ihara Saikaku, which makes a specific reference to butterfly origami.1