Great news!! New book by Satoshi Kamiya

[BrooksHalten]

Hmmmm....ORC...I'll have to give it a shot. With photoshop, I can take pictures, and then stretch it back flat. Easily.

That's OCR, not ORC. Optical Character Recognition, if I'm not mistaken. And getting an OCR program that reads Japanese will not be cheap.

It's called a typo.

[insaneorigami]

don't damage your new book. it won't be worth it.

again... i'm positively mystified that people could possibly think--for one instant--that the "secret of the ryu-zin" could possibly be hidden in those three pages. if origami could so easily be taught via word--especially a model so complex as this one--than designers have been wasting their time all these long years with diagrams. it simply cannot be.

for those of you who are hoping that the holy grail is there, only in japanese and a translation will pull away the veil that's prevented you from folding this model, i sincerely hope i am wrong.

Thank you!

To be honest, I feel that Kamiya should not really offer any advice for folding this model. If he did so, it would just take away so much of the pride that I have for having completed it. For me, it's always been that Ryu Jin (Zin) is something that is only for the practiced CP folder. If a diagram were published, then all the CP boycotters would be able to fold something that only a select group of people can. So much of the charm of this models lies in "unlocking" a sequence that works well. This model should not be something that you just pick up a piece of paper and fold. You have to figure it out, possibly though simple trial and error.

I think that these pages should stay locked. Though they may offer a small amount of help, I feel that people should stop asking Kamiya for a translated version, let alone a diagram. It kills the model.

That's all

Thanks.

[HankSimon]

I think that's an insane opinion It's hard enough for some of us to fold complex models, without also being excluded because we can't fold CPs. Even being able to follow a CP, there is still a certain amount of skill and patience required to make a well-folded model. [Flame War 1]

NYC - I see no problem with providing the translation to folks who have the book. I believe the main intent of copyright is to allow the author to profit from his work. And, I believe that only a a small percentage of folks will buy a book and then buy its translation (Altho there were people who bought both versions of Genuine Origami) ... Dodged Flame War 2

However, some folks might want to reproduce your method. Most people who have scanners (and modern printers) also have OCR software that came with them. Did you use convention OCR software or did you need something special for Japanese ?

Thanks,

- Hank Simon

[insaneorigami]

Well, we differ a bit in opinion here.

And yes, you are correct - it does still take a certain level of skill - I never said that it did not

Though it does take more skill to fold from a CP.

"I folded Ryu Jin 3.5 from a CP"
sounds a bit better than
"I folded Ryu Jin 3.5, but with help from a book"

[BrooksHalten]

So is a book less impressive than getting help from a forum?

[NYCfolder]

Thanks for answering, Hank. That was my take on the situation as well, but I wanted to make sure before I put all the time in translating.

To answer your question, here's how I did it: I use very moderately priced software called OmniPage 17 (professional edition, but I'm unsure if that's necessary.) You have to have East Asian languages installed on your computer for it to work. I set it to look for English and Japanese in the options, tell it to OCR the page, and there you have it.

I must admit at being slightly amused by someone feeling their ability to sing their own praises and get accolades from others will be diminished if more information about Ryu-Jin is published. I'm certain that, as more and more super complex model diagrams are published, there will be plenty more things on the horizon that vocal elitists can use to try and assert their superiority.

[BrooksHalten]

Sigh...I don't know if that translator is ever coming back. But as luck should have it, there's a woman who knows Japanese in my english class at college. Talk about sheer luck! So this wednesday, I'm crossing my fingers and hoping she'll be kind enough to help me out.

[BrooksHalten]

A quick update on those who are patiently waiting for the translations:

The original translator got back with me, and told me that she was not familiar with the style of characters. So she is going to have to look them up, where she didn't say. So, if you sent mean email, please be patient! I am really trying hard to get for you all!

[bethnor]

i suggest you just let it go and enjoy life. let the translation happen when it happens.

[BrooksHalten]

i suggest you just let it go and enjoy life. let the translation happen when it happens.

I do. That's why the translations are taking so long.

[Falcifer]

I don't read Japanese, but I do have an interest in the language and writing and I find it strange that a translator would not be familiar with the style of the characters, since they look fairly standard to me. They're certainly recognisable.
And to be honest, after 2 months, it would be easy enough for someone to translate, given the knowledge.

I did start translating myself (I only just saw this thread tonight). However, the process is rather involved and very laborious due to my lack of comprehension of the language.
I have a Japanese text program, and I can identify the characters well enough to convert the book into a computer text file, but it does take a lot of time.

If I'd read this topic earlier, I might have offered my help. Especially since it looks like you began looking for a translator in August.
I'd probably have done it already if I had any interest in actually folding the model, but as impressive as it is, I really don't like the legs. And I'm not too good at CPs anyway.

If anyone does have scanned pages, or decent photos, you might try NHocr. It's an online OCR tool. Upload an image with the text and it does its best to read it.
The results may not be great, however. If you do use it, I would suggest checking each character to make sure it's the correct one - though, this can be tricky, too, since a lot of Japanese kanji can look similar, and many contain a lot of strokes which make them hard to see properly when printed in relatively small fonts.

[Ryuurin]

I already have the book, but I'm finding it hard to fold the Crane because everything is in Japanese, which I don't really understand. But I think it's a really good book, the Ryujin's crease pattern is there too. But the problem is understanding what they're talking about there...

[cyitoh]

Just got my book yesterday! I read Japanese, and it's very interesting. If you can read it, I highly recommend it! It's like a combination between Kamiya's thoughts, a little bit of design/CP stuff from Origami Design Secrets (Lang), and backcoating/wetfolding/methylcellulose stuff from Advanced Origami (LaFosse)

[rdrutel]

If you can read the Japanese in the book, does it explain anywhere why the book has random English words? These words/instances like Tea Break, Q&A, and Key Point appear in many places throughout the book. The argument in Japan is that the majority of their customers are Japanese so why do them such a disservice by having non-Japanese words that aren't translated? It also begs the question why title a box of Japanese characters with "Key Point!"? Anyone care to explain the logic behind all of this?

[Falcifer]

If you can read the Japanese in the book, does it explain anywhere why the book has random English words? These words/instances like Tea Break, Q&A, and Key Point appear in many places throughout the book. The argument in Japan is that the majority of their customers are Japanese so why do them such a disservice by having non-Japanese words that aren't translated? It also begs the question why title a box of Japanese characters with "Key Point!"? Anyone care to explain the logic behind all of this?

Both "Key point" and "Tea break" mark their respective sections, and while I'm sure there are suitable phrases in Japanese, perhaps having the English words makes them stand out more, which would make sense considering the nature of the two sections.

The Japanese text in front of "Q&A" actually says "frequently asked questions", so it's similar to the chapters, models and creators having their names in English as well as Japanese.
Also, it's easier to label the questions and answers labelled as "Q" and "A". I'm not certain, but I'm pretty sure you can't abbreviate Japanese words the same as you can with English words.

Also, many Japanese people can speak and read English fairly well. Certainly better than most English-speaking people can read/speak Japanese.

Obviously, though, I don't know why a few English words are used amongst such a Japanese-laden publication.