We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kuniko. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kuniko below.

Kuniko, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

After one of my show ‘Origami Tales” at a mid-sized theater, still in costume, I walked through the hallway to meet the audience. Teachers and hundreds of students lined up, excited. One teacher leaned in and said, “I didn’t know origami played such a big role in STEM.” And students shouted, “Origami is cool! Can I make a dragon?”

A few days later, I visit their school and teach the students how to fold origami dragon- a hands-on class for K-12 students to study math. The teachers and I had planned it ahead: connecting folds to geometry, angles, and fractions. By the end of class, I see the spark in students’ eye – curious and proud to their creation. The same kind of eyes I see on scientists and engineers. The eyes of future STEM leaders, discovering how math and art coexist.

Origami is everywhere changing the world little by little.

NASA’s deployable devices. MIT’s origami robots. Harvard’s Origami Organ. Disaster shelters. Hi-tech car wheels using twist folds. Snd many more.

So, what if origami could change the way we learn math?

In addition to my theater career, I took teaching artist training and college math education class. Submitted my Origami & Math residency program to a 5-year grant project through the University of South Florida. In my community alone, my program has reached over 1,000 students. And now, teachers know how to use origami to teach geometry and fractions. This can help save many students from hating math – and I’m thrilled.

Origami—and the arts—are not just hobbies. They’re survival tools. They have real meaning in creating a better life.

When I began my theater career 40 years ago, I did it for fun. I had no sense of mission.
Now I do.

Kuniko, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

When I talk about my life, I can’t tell the story without mentioning three people: my mother, my husband Jon, and my teacher Tony.

I grew up in Osaka, Japan, raised by my mother—a single mom and schoolteacher. She believed in education and worked hard to support my future, paying my college tuition in both and the US. She lived with strength, kindness and a quiet desire for freedom. I inherited her spirit. I went on to study theatre and became a professional performer.

I created a solo show called Magical Mask, Mime & Music of Japan, designed for young audiences, a mix of Japanese storytelling, handcrafted masks, mime, and bamboo flute. My husband, Jon—a professional magician—co-directed the show, adding magic effects and staging ideas that brought it to life in a whole new way. Thanks to Jon’s “magic touch,” the show stood out in showcases and took me around the world.

Mime became a central part of my work, and I was lucky to study with Tony Montanaro, a master of pantomime and acting. To me, he was too genius to keep up – just watching him in class inspired me to search for the essence of clear, powerful body movement. The awe of watching him changed the way I move and express. This part, I have a hard time to explain. It changed my whole perspective to theatre.

Mom, Jon and Tony: their love and support, abled my performance career for many years. About ten years in, I began incorporating origami—the art of paper folding—into my performances. Audiences loved it, and soon sponsors began asking me to teach origami during outreach programs. This led to another path – teaching artist works.

I took teaching artist training and studied math at the college level. I discovered that origami was full of geometry, symmetry, and logic. It was highly mathematical—and deeply theatrical. Teaching origami and math became another form of performance for me, and it brought a new level of excitement and purpose to my career.

I was lucky to have these three people in my life—my mom, Jon, and Tony. Their strength, creativity, and wisdom live in me.
If you meet me, you meet them too.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

BOOK
The End of Science by John Horgan – There’s not gonna be answers to everything. It gave me a great perspective to be soft, be sensitive different perspectives.

MOVIE
Touch the Sound – A documentary film of Evelyn Glennie, profoundly deaf, brilliant Scottish classical percussionist. It shook me upside down and I stopped assuming human limitation.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Something in me died when I lost my mother and my husband, one after the other. It was the kind of heartbreak that leaves you unmoored. Like anyone who’s grieved, I was in pain. I stepped away from my performance career, sold our house, and started over. I opened a new business—an art studio.

In 2016, the Origami Air Art Studio was opened. I began creating and exhibiting origami-inspired artwork and teaching origami classes. I also opened the space to local artists for drawing, painting, and seasonal exhibitions. We participated in art festivals and community events, sharing the work and spirit of the studio.

To keep the business alive, I had to learn fast—how to navigate local politics, build networks, form community connections …. and grow tough skin,

Then the pandemic hit. The studio was forced to close for three years, and financially, it broke me. I returned to my first career in theater simply because I had to. Now, years later, my studio is slowly coming back to life. I teach origami classes for schools and professional development programs, and I still perform my old shows.

I’m grateful for these two distinct careers—studio business and theater career. Having both gave me perspective. The distance between them taught me how to problem-solve in new ways and helped me step back from the tunnel vision that can come with doing only one thing. Each path has made the other richer.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.OrigamiAir.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/origamiairartstudio/
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/OrigamiAir/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBs4kaZCXxrZvZDC1sqS0UA

Image Credits

Sorcha Augustine
Origami Air Art Studio