Japanese hand origami?

September 23, 2004 10:27 PM

Many years ago in junior high, there was a Japanese girl in one of my classes. One day she taught me a couple of examples of what she said was an art in Japan wherein you create representations of things (animals, maybe other things, I don't know) using your hands. It's kind of like origami, but you use your hands instead of paper. I've always thought it was really cool and people get off on it when they see it (some more than others). I have googled with no result. Does anybody know what the name of this is? I have always wanted to know more about it and would like to learn how to make other things besides the frog and the monster. A few pics of what she taught me that day back in school are here. (Note: in order for the monster to be effective sound effects may be needed.)
posted by wsg to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

It's called Kuji-in -- they're used in meditation.

Here's a Google Images Search.
posted by willnot at 10:51 PM on September 23, 2004

Response by poster: Thank you for that, willnot. I'm not sure that is exactly what I'm talking about. I want to learn how to make more animals.
posted by wsg at 7:08 AM on September 24, 2004

I was hoping to see more answers here, but I sure don't have any.
posted by callmejay at 7:50 AM on September 24, 2004

I guess it's possible she was showing you something else. Your Monster hand-form was one of the nine that were shown to me when I was studying martial arts.

Most of those hand positions weren't animals. There was sort of a tiger form that I can't even remember how to do anymore, and the frog looks kind of familiar to me as well.

The Kuji-in that became part of Ninjutsu black magic was co-opted originally from Buddhist monks. Maybe they had more animal forms. You might try some searches along the lines of "Kuji-in" "origins" or "originally" to see if you can trace it back to the original source.
posted by willnot at 9:17 AM on September 24, 2004