It was a great delight when a few weeks ago, in my regular Japanese class, my Japanese teacher handed out rectangular pieces of paper, quickly showed us how to make an origami box, and then proceeded to pour sweets into them. I was really impressed with the box. It’s very simple to make, but how you’d originally come up with the steps to create it is beyond me. I asked my teacher whether it was normal in Japan to be able to make this kind of thing. She laughed and told me that everyone can do it as a child.

Well I don’t think everyone outside of Japan can make such a thing, and so here I’ve decided to outline the steps involved. I’m certainly not the first to do this, but I enjoyed it so much I decided I wanted to share the excitement.

1. Step One

   Get a rectangular piece of paper. The size isn’t too important, I’ve done it on varying sizes from whole pieces of A4 to receipts. Maybe half a piece of A4 is a good start. Fold the paper in half lengthwise. Then fold it in half again in the other direction. The second folding is just guide marks we’ll use later, so you can unfold the second crease. You should have a piece of paper like in the picture.

   

   A rectangular piece of paper folded lengthwise, and then folded in the other direction as to make a crease.

2. Step Two

   The piece of paper originally had four corners. Currently the corners are touching each other because we folded the paper. Take any one of those corners and put it against the two opposite corners, so three corners are touching each other. Make sure the other corner stays where it was, and fold down so you form a triangle like in this picture.

   

   Fold three corners together to make a triangle.

3. Step Three

   Now you have formed the triangle fold the corner back to its original position. The side of your paper should have formed a triangle (see one side of the paper in the picture below). Now repeat step 2 and form an identical triangle on the other side. The finished product should be as below.

   

   The paper after after forming the two triangles.

4. Step Four

   In the centre of the paper is the crease we made as a guideline. Fold the edges of the paper into this crease as shown below. Do this for all four edges.

   

   Fold each of the four edges towards the central crease.

5. Step Five

   Now fold the top edge down by a small amount, and then fold over again. Do this on both sides.

   

   Fold the top edge down, and then fold that over again.

6. Step Six

   We’re nearly there! Now take both of the edges you have just folded down and pull away from each other. You can see the inside of what will be the box in the picture. You just need to force the bottom of the box to be flat! You can do this with your hands.

   

   Now you can pull the edges away to see the interior of the box. Force the bottom of this to be flat to finish!

Finished!

The finished box

Now it’s completed! You can enjoy your own little box for containing sweets or anything else you’d like! Please leave some comments below about how successful you were at doing this. Also my own example box here isn’t completely perfect, so some photos in the comments of your own completed attempts would be great!