Maru-Tsumami vs. Ken-Tsumami: The Two Basic Folds of Tsumami-Zaiku

Tsumami-zaiku (a Japanese art of folding small squares of silk into flower petals) has only two shapes.

Maru-tsumami (rounded) and ken-tsumami (pointed).

Plum, chrysanthemum, cherry blossom, wisteria — every flower is built from some combination of these two. The kanzashi (traditional Japanese hair ornaments) we make in our workshop in Nishijin, Kyoto come down to the same two folds.

And the difference between them is smaller than you'd think: they differ at the third fold, and nowhere else.

Start with how you hold the tweezers

Hold your tweezers the way you'd hold a pencil. Don't grip hard — just support the fabric gently, without crushing it.

Use a square of fabric. Starting around 2.5cm (about 1 inch) square is the easiest size to work with.

Maru-tsumami (rounded petal)

A full, rounded petal. Used for soft flowers like plum and cherry blossom.

1. Pick up one square of fabric with the tweezers.
2. 1st fold — pinch along the diagonal and fold in half into a triangle. Line the corners up cleanly.
3. 2nd fold — pinch the center of the triangle, and fold it in half again toward the left. Align the corners on the left side.
4. 3rd fold (this is where maru-tsumami is made) — pinch about one tweezer-width above the center line of the triangle, so a 90° corner shows on the right. Open the bottom slightly, fold it up, and pinch the three tips together evenly at the top.
5. Hold the aligned tips with your left hand and gently slide the tweezers out. Pinch the top of the triangle with the tip of the tweezers and curl it inward — this is where the rounded shape comes from.
6. Insert the tweezers at an angle into the petal, and trim the cut edge at the base straight with scissors.
7. Set the cut side down on the glue board and press it into the paste to secure it, then slowly withdraw the tweezers.
8. Gently open the back of the petal slightly with the tweezers — and it's done.

Ken-tsumami (pointed petal)

A petal with a sharp point. Used for chrysanthemum and other crisp, upright flowers.

The first two folds are exactly the same as maru-tsumami — diagonal into a triangle, then pinch the center and fold left. Nothing changes up to that point.

Only the 3rd fold differs:

• Maru-tsumami — pinch slightly above the center line, open the bottom, fold up, and curl the top.
• Ken-tsumami — pinch exactly at the center of the triangle, and fold it straight up in half without opening the bottom.

That's the entire difference. From there, trim the cut edge just as with maru-tsumami, and set it upright into the paste on the glue board.

Two shapes, every flower

In our hands-on classes, once someone has these two folds down, they choose a flower to build:

• Plum — 5 maru-tsumami petals, 1 ken-tsumami
• Kawari-hana (a stylized flower) — 3 maru-tsumami petals, 3 ken-tsumami
• Chrysanthemum — 9 ken-tsumami petals

The same two shapes, in different combinations and counts, become entirely different flowers. That's what makes tsumami-zaiku interesting.

When it's not going well, it's usually the fabric or the tools

A corner won't set. A petal springs back open. It won't come out full and rounded.

When we hear this in class, the cause is almost never skill.

Synthetic fabric doesn't remember the shape you fold it into — silk does, because it holds the fold your fingers give it. And if the tweezers' tips don't meet cleanly, a corner simply won't set, no matter how careful the fold.

Changing the fabric and tools alone can make a piece look like it was made by someone else entirely.

We've written more about materials and tools in a separate article.

Ready to try it with your hands

We offer kits with a how-to video and printed instructions. Fabric and base are both included, so you can start the same day. We built them directly from the steps we teach in class.

Browse tsumami-zaiku kits

We also teach tsumami-zaiku classes at our workshop in Nishijin, Kyoto, for anyone who'd rather learn hands-on.