Those two avenues of origami have merged together in the twentieth century. There is more to origami today than just paper-folding. Origami has a long history in the east and west and a sophistication which is more artistic than a mere craft. The following is the story of the east and west in origami. Before one can discuss the art of origami itself, we must look at the material used in creating the art.
Paper is the material used in origami and paper was invented in China.
It revolutionized the writing of Chinese characters. But Chinese characters were being printed on cloth and the cost of making cloth to write upon was expensive. An alternate material was needed to write upon which was more practical. A Chinese eunuch by the name of Ts'ai Lun invented a material by which we call paper today to replace cloth as a writing surface. As examples, some of those other papers were made by peeling bark off in thin sheets and allowed to dry or in the case of papyrus, the plants were separated into fibers and matted together into sheets.