Google Doodle Celebrates Godfather of Origami Akira Yoshizawa

Google has marked the 101st anniversary of the birth of the origami grandmaster Akira Yoshizawa with a new doodle.

The search engine giant dedicated the doodle to pay tribute to the Japanese-born Yoshizawa, with letters in the doodle turned into paper butterflies representing the art form, made popular by Yoshizawa.

The doodle was created with the help of Robert J. Lang, who is one of the foremost origami artists in the world.

Akira Yoshizawa was born in March 1911 to the family of a farmer. He is credited with turning origami from a children's past time to a living art.

As a teenager, he started working in a factory that made machine tools. After few years, when Yoshizawa was promoted as technical draftsman, he was asked to teach geometry to his junior employees. Yoshizawa used his paper folding technique to teach juniors.

In 1930s, Yoshizawa left the factory and started pursuing his art form for more than two decades.

Later in 1952, he was given an origami assignment to fold the 12 signs of the Japanese zodiac for a Japanese magazine. The assignment got reputation for Yoshizawa and made him a popular international figure.

His work has been exhibited in several museums around the world. In 1983, Yoshizawa was honoured with the title "Order of the Rising Sun."

He died in 2005 at the age of 94 from complications caused by pneumonia.