Origami for the blind

Masu Box

Originally a masu is a wooden box for measuring rice, with boxes ranging from 180 milliliter to 18 liter. In origami it is a sturdy, square box. With a small variation a lid or other box proportions can be made.

The proportions of the box are width of 2 and a height of 1. The with of the box is a quarter of the diagonal

Design
Traditional.
Type
Utility. Box.
Difficulty
Easy.
Paper
Square, e.g. 15 cm.

Folding

All creases should be really sharp.

  1. The back side of the paper faces you.
  2. Blintz the paper, see the instructions.
  3. The shape is a square with folded edges and the four paper corners in the centre.
  4. Fold an edge to the centre. It should end up horizontally.
  5. Fold the opposite edge to the centre, aligning it with the first edge.
  6. Unfold the two edges.
  7. Repeat with the two edges in the other direction.
  8. Pull out two opposite corners from the centre to unfold completely in that direction. The two other corners stay at the centre.
  9. From this point we will use existing creases only.
  10. Fold the long edges to the centre, using the existing creases.
  11. Move the long edges back to a vertical position.
  12. In the centre of the model there is a 2 by 2 square that will become the bottom of the box. The 2 by 1 rectangles next to the bottom square will become the ends of the box. Beyond them you find another 2 by 1 rectangle, now with a triangle at the ends, and beyond that rectangle is a larger triangle that will end up on the inside centre of the bottom.
  13. Focus on one of the ends. In the raised sides there is a 1 by 1 square at each end of the rectangle. These small squares have a mountain crease starting from the corner of the bottom and following the edge of the large, in-folded triangle.
  14. Push in the diagonals of the small squares from the outside of the box. The end will begin to raise. Push it to vertical while the diagonals form two triangular pockets that meet at the top of the inside centre of the end.
  15. From the top of the now vertical end the next 2 by 1 rectangle extends, overlaid by two small triangles and extended by a larger triangle.
  16. Bend that rectangle over the edge of the end of the box, down into the inside, until the larger triangle is flat against the bottom of the box.
  17. Repeat this with the other end.
  18. The masu box is finished.

Usage

Add a lid to have a closed box, see below. Depending on your usage, you may want to add a bit of glue stick under the four corners at the centre of the bottom.

Lid

Observe in steps 3-6 that the creaseline marks the bottom of the box. We want the lid to be slightly larger. So, for the lid, folde like the recipe above, but in steps 3-6 you fold the edges to only 2-3 millimeters from the centre, leaving a gap.