The Origins of the Chinese Fortune Cookie Started with a Japanese-American

I've seen Brian Kito do his mochi & manju stage demonstration for over a decade, each year at the Monterey Park Cherry Blossom Festival; but usually I'm too busy at my own tables to pay close attention.

This year I was happy to be able to take a break and watch and film his demo. I was shocked to learn about the murky origins of the Chinese fortune cookie; and how that in all likelihood, it's a Japanese-American invention.

Sorry about the audio quality, but listen to Brian explain how the origin has been traced back to his grandfather.

http://www.fugetsu-do.com/history.htm

From Wikipedia:

Seiichi Kito, the founder of Fugetsu-do of Little Tokyo in Los Angeles, also claims to have invented the cookie.[8] Kito claims to have gotten the idea of putting a message in a cookie from Omikuji (fortune slip) which are sold at temples and shrines in Japan. According to his story, he sold his cookies to Chinese restaurants where they were greeted with much enthusiasm in both the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas. Thus Kito's main claim is that he is responsible for the cookie being so strongly associated with Chinese restaurants.[citation needed]
Up to around World War II, fortune cookies were known as "fortune tea cakes"—likely reflecting their origins in Japanese tea cakes.[2]
Fortune cookies moved from being a confection dominated by Japanese-Americans to one dominated by Chinese-Americans sometime around World War II. One theory for why this occurred is because of the Japanese American internment during World War II, which forcibly put over 100,000 Japanese-Americans in internment camps, including those who had produced fortune cookies. This gave an opportunity for Chinese manufacturers.

Penguin Pop!

Rodney Kageyama

I heard that Rodney passed away this morning.  He was a mainstay as an MC at cultural events like The Autumn Festival at the Aquarium of the Pacific and the Monterey Park Cherry Blossom Festival.  He and I always exchanged greetings and he'd sometimes promote my origami booth when MCing.  He was also on a television show with another friend of mine ("Quantum Leap"?).

A Thousand Origami Lego Cranes?

As a fan of origami and Legos....

Lego Sisyphus (Off topic)

In origami, there are some models that I consider "kid's craft" and others I put into the category of "art". Similarly, there are some Lego models that are just for play; and others that belong in a museum or on a work desk and admired as "art". This is one of those art pieces, made of Lego bricks.

Designed by Jason Allemann, I saved up my pennies to purchase the parts to build this beautiful, kinetic automaton.

It runs on batteries; but also has a crank shaft that is stored inside the model (the side reliefs open out) and can be extracted and connected outside.

All four sides of the model have a relief depicting scenes from Sisyphus' life.

From Greek mythology, Sisyphus was the founder and king of Ephyra (later named "Corinth"). He grew infamous for his greed and deceitfulness, known as "the most cunning knave on earth".

Having betrayed one of Zeus' secrets, Zeus ordered Hades to chain Sisyphus in Tartarus. Hades personally went to fetch for Sisyphus, bringing the chains he was to bind Sisyphus with in the underworld. Sisyphus expressed so much interest in the chains and handcuffs, that he persuaded Hades to demonstrate their use - on himself.

Tricked, Hades became trapped in his own chains, locked in a closet at Sisyphus' house. As a consequence, no one was able to die on earth. The sick and infirmed went on suffering, unable to leave this life. A soldier might be eviscerated in battle and still return to his camp for dinner.

Ares, the god of war, became enraged that no one would die upon the field of battle, ruining his "fun"; and so he freed Hades.

Sisyphus was ordered to report to the Underworld; but Sisyphus had another trick up his sleeve.

He simply told his wife not to bury him and then complained to Persephone, goddess of the Underworld, that he had not been accorded the proper funeral honors. What's more, as an unburied corpse he had no business on the far side of the river Styx at all - his wife hadn't placed a coin under his tongue to secure passage with Charon the ferryman. Surely her highness could see that Sisyphus must be given leave to journey back to the world of the living and put things right.

Persephone granted the request and Sisyphus made his way back to his kingdom, where he promptly forgot all about funerals and such drab affairs and lived on in dissipation for another good stretch of time. But even Sisyphus could only go so far in postponing the inevitable. Eventually he was hauled down to Hades by Hermes, messenger of the gods, where his indiscretions and trespasses finally caught up with him. For a crime against the gods - especially his hubris against Zeus, thinking himself more clever than the king of the gods - he was condemned to an eternity of hard labor. And frustrating labor at that. For his assignment was to roll a great boulder to the top of a hill. Only every time Sisyphus, by the greatest of exertion and toil, attained the summit, the huge boulder would roll down the hill, back to the bottom. His punishing afterlife was to spend eternity in useless effort and unending frustration.

Origami Sighting on Penn & Teller

The ninja-like models on the background wall:

Paper Toys

Off topic: My favorite popsicle!

Heather posted a review of my favorite Japanese popsicle that I've not seen in about two decades!





I've had them in Japan; briefly saw them sold out here at a Japanese supermarket in Los Angeles/Santa Monica- but this was many years ago.  They haven't carried them in forever; and I feared the company who made this went out of business.

The watermelon seeds are cleverly made of chocolate.  So delish!  Including the melon flavor green!

26 years later.....

....It is happening, again:





3rd season premieres tonight on Showtime!

What does this have to do with an origami blog?  Not much.  Just a lone paper crane used in one of the commercials.

Previously posted here.

Mother’s Day after the death of a child

Related to a previous article, The Last Crane, comes this sadness on Mother's Day:

How can I celebrate this day? How can I celebrate myself? Every day I open the door to my daughter’s room, sit on her tidy bed and wonder how any of this is real. How is it possible that all I have left is her collection of albums, stones and crystals, and her closet full of untouched clothes? How long will they serve as proof that she was here on this Earth, that she was real?
As the days go by, my daughter’s proximity to me fades, the reality of her absence becomes more concrete. This would be okay if it were because she had graduated high school, gone off to college and started her life, but that’s not what happened. She stopped existing at 15. She stopped.
I don’t know how to celebrate Mother’s Day without the consolation prize given all mothers — that our babies are gone, but we have laughing toddlers in exchange, that our toddlers are gone, but we have curious, bright-eyed preschoolers in their place, that the messy, carefree days of preschool meld into the primary years, when interests and personalities emerge and blossom, giving us teenagers who are whole, unique people. The fact that our kids grow up into actual people distracts us from the pain of their fading childhood. Except, of course, if they don’t grow up.
I am two mothers now — the mother you see walking beside my remaining daughter in the all-too-real world of chores and homework and trivial things and the mother you don’t see — the mother bereft, imagining that my daughter is two steps behind me, just out of sight.
There are too many mothers like me, rushing here and there, pretending we’re fully in one world when, really, we’re in two.
I look whole and normal, but deep inside there’s an emptiness where my heart used to be. I can’t walk with my surviving daughter without imagining the shadow of her sister right beside us, rolling her eyes, glancing at her phone.
I wish I could go back to when my kids were 9 and 6, when Mother’s Day was about hand-drawn cards and breakfast in bed. I can almost smell the burned toast, taste the mint tea. Dwelling on the past is the only thing that allows me to feel something other than numbness and despair. The others who walk this path of intense grief tell me it gets better. Eventually, I’ll start feeling what I’m supposed to feel. I’ll move more fully into the world of living children. Until then, I’m as much a part of my dead daughter’s world as I am my living daughter’s.

Read the rest at WaPo.

Origami in Name Only

Joseph Wu is in Japan and posted that he bought some Starbucks origami coffee.

I believe this is a review by Heather Shida:

Return of the Stormtrooper

Storm trooper
Created by Ashimura Shunichi
Folded by Michael Sanders
6" x 6" square of tissue foil 

I saw Rogue One Thursday evening at 11pm.  

So I'm in a bit of a mood for Star Wars models.  I decided to revisit Ashimura Shunichi's Stormtrooper model; and this time, I looked at an image of an actual Stormtrooper helmet to help me with how I decided to shape this model.  I'm more satisfied with this effort than with my previous one.

Polygons crowdfunding

Polygons takes cues from the folding magic of origami, and comes in two sizes; one measures out ¼, ½, ¾, and 1 teaspoon and the other measures out ½, 1, 1½, and 2 tablespoons. In addition to saving space in a drawer (every bit helps in tiny kitchens), the flat design makes it easier to clean and transfer sticky ingredients from the spoon into a mixing bowl. 

"When creating Polygons, we decided to engineer the spoon with a flat design because it mimics the human hand," says Rahul Agarwal, designer and CEO of Polygons. "When your hand is not in use, it lays flat. But when you want to hold a heap of sand, or some water, you cup your hand to create some volume, depending on how much you want to hold—that is exactly how Polygons works." 

Buy the Polygons measuring spoon set for $10 here.

Kubo movie review

I arranged for a team-bonding day with some of my gymnasts, for the movie Kubo and the Two Strings.


If you must blink, do it now!  (Or hit the replay button and re-read the post....)



Decent turnout (from the pool of gymnasts I have; turnout for the movie from the general populace apparently isn't as good as it deserves).  We killed some time with some origami and am thankful no security came over to scold us for throwing this over the balcony.

The movie has a decent story and message; but is probably too intense, serious, and heavy of a storyline for young kids to follow; and not get scared.   The parents seemed to all enjoy it.

I grew up liking traditional Japanese ghost stories; and this movie evoked a certain sense of that.

I do feel that this movie is a good promotional for generating interest in origami (even though much of it has to do with magic than strict paperfolding).

After the scene with the birds, I now kind of want to fold Jared Needle's bird, whereas I didn't have a great deal of interest before.

Focus Features Los Angeles Premiere of LAIKA "Kubo and The Two Strings"

Art Parkinson seen at Focus Features Los Angeles Premiere of LAIKA "Kubo and The Two Strings" on Sunday, Aug. 14, 2016, in Universal City, Calif. (Photo by Eric Charbonneau/Invision for Focus Features/AP Images)

 I wonder if any artists out there have the inclination to fold some of the characters from the movie, after seeing it?

The movie was made in stop-motion.  Not CGI.  This movie deserves respect.

That is one serious paper cut...

Paul Hanson has a new book out that features an origami sai from the movie, "Red 2":





I spent a lot of hours during the 90s training under Mark Mikita, Dan Inosanto, and many others.  At the time, my whole life seemed to revolve around martial arts.

The interviewer's question asking about "the origami thing", "Can that actually work?", reminds me of improvising a rolled up newspaper as a weapon (after all, what is paper, really, but wood, in a sense?).  Fast forward to 22:01 

Paper tricks

De-Dimensional Furniture

Korean designer Jongha Choi has come with one of the best space-saving solutions ever, creating a furniture collection that easily flattens, turning a usual chair into 2D piece of art. Chairs and stools are made of aluminum and steel and perfectly practical despite their lightweight look.

Hat tip:  Catherine Ortiz

Civil War

Source

Hat tip:  David Medina

Today is Tuesday...

Source

Remembering David, Ron, Daniel....

 

Video description:

Uploaded on Sep 5, 2008 These tiles were put up on the fence across the street from St. Vincent's, the hospital in the Village where they waited to take care of the survivors who never came. In case you can't read it, the name on the tile I walked up to at the end is David Reed Gamboa Brandhorst, who was only three years old. His fathers Daniel R. Brandhorst and Ronald Gamboa died with him. I didn't know any of them. I just walked up at a certain point and pointed at the first tile that caught my eye. RIP.

Find a way or find excuses

This photo has been trending on my FB newsfeed. It was taken last month by Joyce Gilos Torrefranca, a medical student in Cebu:

It shows 9-year-old Daniel Cabrera kneeling on the pavement with the famous golden arches in the background. He's using a makeshift wooden bench as he writes in his workbook. "For me as a student, it just hit me a lot, like big time," Joyce Torrefranca told the Philippine news network ABS-CBN. "This kid, he doesn't have anything but he has dedication to study." Joyce said seeing Daniel struggling with his homework inspired her to work harder. The photo was quickly shared thousands of times with other people saying they'd been inspired by him too.

An inspirational reminder of the blessings in our own lives, the struggles of those less fortunate, and the adage that if it's important enough to you, you will find a way; if it's not, you will find excuses.

Gymnastics is an expensive, "elitist" sport; and many kids don't have the opportunity to discover their potential in the environment of training in a well-managed, well-equipped, well-coached facility. As a gymnastics coach, I try and remind my athletes to never take their opportunities in life for granted. I have one athlete on the team whose parents struggle to afford her monthly tuition. The mom does not speak fluent English. Does not have a computer or email. She once pulled her daughter out of gym. At the end of the month and at the end of practice, without fanfare or warning, her kid comes up to me and matter-of-factly states, "This is my last day. Bye." I guess the mom was too embarrassed to let us know her husband lost his job and they were struggling. She was doing extra work just for her daughter because she knew how much her daughter loves gymnastics Fortunately we were able to talk her into keeping her daughter- my gymnast- enrolled in our program. I'm grateful to the gym I work for in that the owner and office management were willing to work with the mom and negotiate something that she could afford.


 At the annual Vidmar Invitational out in Los Angeles, '84 Olympian Peter Vidmar reminds the competitors of this life lesson, telling the gymnasts that the next time their parents drop them off at the gym, to take pause and thank their parents and show deep appreciation. Because their parents don't have to do any of this: Driving them to practice, financing it, watching meets, etc. The 3 golden rules for the staff at my gym: Do your best... Always do the right thing... And everyday, do something selfless that benefits others.