Kabuto tutorial

Konnichiwa and happy Kodomo no Hi (こどもの日)! One of my son’s favorite traditions is crafting and then getting to decorate his very own Kabuto (samurai helmet) origami! Displaying or wearing Kabuto on Children’s Day symbolizes the strength and vitality of these sweet little people we’re celebrating.

 Although I am a fourth generation Japanese American, or Yonsei (四世), origami has always been an important part of our family history and gatherings. Teaching my own boys who are Gosei (五世), or fifth generation, has been an incredibly exciting and rewarding experience, and one that we love to do with gusto on Kodomo no Hi! 

Without further ado, we hope you’ll join us by trying your hand at making your very own Kabuto!

Step 1: Start with a square piece of paper. You can making a square out of newspaper if you’d like to make a larger hat to wear, or you can use origami paper to make a decorative Kabuto

Step 2: Fold your square so opposite corners are touching. One you have lined up your corners, make a crisp crease.

Step 3: Now you have a triangle! Now take your two new upper right and left corners along the crease you made, and fold them down to the top of your triangle, creating crisp folds.

Step 4: Now you have a diamond! You will now take the bottom center flaps of the diamond and fold each of them up, halving your new diamond. This will create two new triangles on either side of your diamond.

Step 5: Your Kabuto is almost complete! But first, you must create your datemono! Traditional Kabuto often had crests in the shape of horns to symbolize deer, Japanese horned beetles (kabutomushi, mushi for insect, and HEY! Kabuto!), or other mythical creatures. Take the top two pieces of your new diamond shape and fold outwards to create your horned datemono

Step 6: Now head the very bottom of your diamond and grab the layer on top. Pull that up towards your newly created datemono and fold a little ways down from the top so you can still see your datemono but now have a space for your decorative crest. With that small remaining sliver above your new crease, fold and crease again to create your new hat’s band.

Step 7: You’re almost done! Take the final bottom half of your diamond and fold into your new hat’s pocket, creasing firmly once it’s hidden from view inside the hat.

 Now time to decorate!!

Now the kiddos have free reign to express their creativity! Here my son Kai draws the Japanese

symbol for his name as his crest. He then followed with a very “scary and intense” (his words,

not mine!) picture of himself as a Samurai!

Scrapbook paper turned out to make more of a mini-sized hat (left) but for a large hat (right), newspaper works awesome!! 

Happy Kodomo no Hi everyone!!!