fandomhigh | Japanese Art, Friday, Period Two

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Japanese Art, Friday, Period Two

Algren, clad in actual modern clothing today instead of the yukata he'd briefly contemplated wearing to class before deciding that might be laying it on a little thick, was looking faintly amused as he settled in for his lesson today. He'd set a low table in the middle of the room, all desks and chairs pushed off to the side, and there were cushions on the floor around the table so that students could sit comfortably. On the table were stacks of brightly colored pieces of paper, cut into squares.

"Ohayōgozaimasu," he greeted, giving a small nod once it looked as though his students had settled in. "Good morning, and welcome to Japanese Art. I'm Captain Nathan Algren-- Mr. Algren for the sake of this class will do."

Or Algren-Sensei, though that seemed a little too formal for the sake of a class of three. He shrugged his shoulders all the same.

"We'll be covering several different types of Japanese art over the course of this workshop, starting with the one most people have at least a passing familiarity with," he gestured to the paper, "and moving on into calligraphy, perhaps some theater... Japan has a vast and diverse selection of art forms to choose from, and we'll barely be able to scratch the surface over the course of the next few weeks. This week, of course, is reserved for introductions - name and if there's anything in particular you hope to take away from this class - and then we'll get into folding some paper."

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"I don't suppose it's meant to be any bird in particular, and you're more than welcome to use any paper you please, but-" He picked up his own and threw it to demonstrate. The little bird spun and tumbled through the air before landing on the table. "It does twirl when you throw it."

Ooooooo. Aaaaaaah.

"Ooooh," Steve said, grinning. "That's pretty neat."

"I'm kind of fond of it myself," Nathan admitted, grinning right back. "There are more complex birds than this one, of course, but this one is a good starting point."

He made a reach for a fresh sheet of paper of his own.

"Want to go over this one, step by step, then?"

"Yes, please," Steve said, reaching for a blue square of paper.

"Alright then," Nathan said, laying his paper down white side up. "First, you start by folding your paper in half, corner to corner, like this."

He demonstrated, folding his paper so that only the coloured side was showing, and the shape of the sheet remaining was a triangle.

Steve smiled. "I can fold a map and not make a mess of it," he said. "I can make a triangle."

Voila! Triangle!

"You're a natural," Nathan replied, smirking a little bit. "Now, fold that triangle in half again to make another triangle," he demonstrated, running his thumb along the edge to crease it, "make sure the crease is there before you open it back up to that first triangle you made."

Small triangle, big triangle with a line down the middle, like so.

"Well, if teaching falls through, I can always make a mint in paper folding, right?" he teased as he followed the directions.

"You're practically set for life," Nathan agreed with a laugh and a shake of his head. "Now, take the top point of your triangle, and fold them down on one side so they're just below the bottom fold."

That was easier to demonstrate than it was to explain, so Nathan did exactly that, folding the top of the triangle down so that it was a little more than 'folded in half,' with the point of the triangle hanging over the bottom edge.

Steve frowned in concentration, then repeated what Algren had done. "This is kind of relaxing," he said.

"I imagine that's half the point," Algren replied, nodding a little. "Many Japanese art forms are very... deliberate isn't quite the right word. Reflective, perhaps. Precise. A lot of care is taken to make certain that the end result is clearly a culmination of all of the careful steps taken along the way. Origami is no different, there."

He then folded the whole piece of paper in half along the crease that they'd made and unfolded before, nodding for Steve to continue following along.

Steve continued following along. "Like with sushi, too?" he asked. "Sometimes it seems more like art than food."

"A bit like sushi," Nathan mused, turning the folded paper sideways, and then folding down the tall flaps, one on either side, creasing them, and then unfolding them halfway. He smirked a bit, and then held up his finished bird. "Though sushi is a bit more on the 'functional art' end of the scale."

As opposed to his paper bird, which he was now throwing like a paper airplane so that it tumbled its way to the table.

"Well, if you're gonna eat your paper birds, I'm not gonna judge," Steve teased.

"Extra fiber in the diet never hurt," Nathan quipped, smirking faintly. "Still, I don't actually endorse eating the paper."

The taste you were looking for there was umami, not origami.

He could misspell it on Pinterest and start a trend of eating origami, let's be honest.

"I've never been that hungry," Steve said, laughing.

Then Steve had clearly had much better rations than Nathan had, back in the day.

"No matter what you fold the paper into, no matter how edible the origami looks, I really can't endorse actually eating the origami," Nathan chuckled. "We'll probably cover something edible in another class."

"Would you mind terribly if I stopped by again, then?" Steve asked.

"I wouldn't mind at all," Nathan replied easily. "It's a small class, there's plenty of space for one more. Not all of my lessons will necessarily be visual art, but it will all be art."

Steve's face lit up. "That would be swell. I haven't taken an art class in a long, long time."

"Well, then," Nathan replied, "it'll be good to have you aboard. I'll try to keep it interesting for you."

And for his students, sure. But also for Steve.

"You don't have to go to any additional effort on my account," Steve said. "I only know a little bit about Japan."

"I could teach you that, too," Nathan chuckled. "I have been living there for a few years, now. Though what they've been up to in the past century and a half is a little beyond me."

But only a little. He had read a history book or three since coming to the island.

"I can help with that!" Steve said. "I've had to catch up on the last seventy years, so I've got a lot of history books. I just haven't gotten through them all just yet."

"Oh yeah? And is there anything really important that I missed in there?"

Look, Algren had done a lot of catching up in his time on the island, but Steve looked so eager to help, he didn't have the heart to say so.

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