The Art of Hanakami, or Flower-Petal Folding

Beautiful! But those are not the petals of bougainvillea. The actual flowers are white and much too small to be folded.

Now where did I keep that shrink-ray gun, need to use it on my fingers. Origami with naturally occurring raw materials is an intriguing experience, going to try it..

As a simple practical matter, "hanakami" is incorrect Japanese. The "k" changes to "g" via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendaku; there's already an example in "origami". So at the very least, it should be "hanagami".

(The fact that "it also means “tissue paper” in Japanese (鼻紙)" is irrelevant; homophones are common in Japanese.)

The choice of words is also kind of weird. "Oribana" would work, but that already refers to flowers made of origami. I would have gone with "hanaori" instead. "Hanagami" sounds like you're making paper out of flowers, or flower printed paper.

I can assure you that the coin of this term caused me quite a bit of headache, even though I would prefer to focus on the fact that I am not aware of anyone else folding flower petals into origami, except for one other person who has done this with lotus flower petals.

I have consulted friends in Japan (native Japanese speakers), and even Robert Lang gave me the same comment. It is not my intention to cause controversy with the choice of words, but even the Japan Origami Academic Society would not respond to my request for clarification, so I think this is where a :shrug emoji would go.

I can assure you that they are definitely bougainvillea flowers that I folded. In fact there appears to be quite a few varieties and they do possess different colours: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bougainvillea

You are right in that they are difficult to fold, but not because of the size of petals (I fold models no bigger than from a 1cm x 1cm square cut from the petal), but because of the curvature of the petals that makes it difficult to press and work with.

If you get around to trying this, please let me know and send me an image. I want to keep a record of the types of flowers that you can fold, along with the people who have done this :)

As far as I’m concerned, French fries aren’t French, Panama hats aren’t even from Panama, and German Chocolate cake isn’t German. Ever heard of artistic freedom of expression? It’s his art, his term, his vision; no one gets to take that away from him even if it doesn’t make sense to others. Even if “hanakami” isn’t a traditional or historically used Japanese term, it still makes perfect sense linguistically and artistically.

Really interesting art of yours! Even though I’m not talented at origami in general, I think working with flower petals would be a real unique experience. If you have workshops or virtual sessions, I’d like to know about them!