Modular origami

The first historical evidence for a modular origami design comes from a Japanese book by Hayato Ohoka published in 1734 called Ranma Zushiki.

[2] The cube is pictured twice (from slightly different angles) and is identified in the accompanying text as a tamatebako (magic treasure chest).

Isao Honda's World of Origami (published in 1965) appears to have the same model, where it is called a "cubical box".

The term kusudama is sometimes, rather inaccurately, used to describe any three-dimensional modular origami structure resembling a ball.

There are also a few modular designs in the Chinese paperfolding tradition, notably the pagoda (from Maying Soong) and the lotus made from Joss paper.

Most traditional designs are however single-piece and the possibilities inherent in the modular origami idea were not explored further until the 1960s when the technique was re-invented by Robert Neale in the US and later by Mitsunobu Sonobe in Japan.

One notable figure is Steve Krimball, who discovered the potential in Sonobe's cube unit and demonstrated that it could be used to make alternative polyhedral shapes, including a 30-piece ball.

Notable modular origami artists include Robert Neale, Mitsunobu Sonobe, Tomoko Fuse, Kunihiko Kasahara, Tom Hull, Heinz Strobl, Rona Gurkewitz, Meenakshi Mukerji, and Ekaterina Lukasheva.

[4] Neale developed a system to model equilateral polyhedra based on a module with variable vertex angles.

Additionally, bipyramids are possible, by folding the central crease on each module outwards or convexly instead of inwards or concavely as for the icosahedron and other stellated polyhedra.