Japanophiles: Andrew Dewar

Hello, and welcome to Japanology Plus.
I'm Peter Barakan.

Today we present one of
our Japanophile profiles.

I'm in the city of Gifu,
which is about 250 km

due west of Tokyo in central Japan.

I'm going to be talking to a Canadian
who was enticed to Japan

by his love of a particular kind of
paper plane which was born in this country

and which he now designs
and writes books about.

It crashed, didn't it?

Doesn't seem to be any of the worse
for wear though.

Hi.

Nice to meet you.

Yeah, nice to meet you.

So, this is one of your creations, is it?

Yes. This is a nice simple one,

but it seems to fly pretty well.

When we were kids,
everybody made paper planes,

but you made them
out of one piece of paper,

which you folded
in various different ways.

This is a totally different beast,
isn't it?

Yes and no.

I mean, they both fly.
They're both airplanes.

Right.

But you can do a little bit more
with this.

When you cut and paste,

you can make them into
as complicated an airplane as you want,

and you can make them
very high performance.

Andrew Dewar is a creator
of paper airplanes.

He has produced hundreds
of beautiful designs.

His work has been featured
in over 40 books,

published in both Japan and abroad.

He's something of a paper-plane celebrity.

Today, we're visiting his home.

Wow.

Oh, my God.

Oh, that's incredible.

How many have you got in here?

I have no idea.

It's around 2,000.

There's 30 years of planes here.

Oh, that's a familiar looking one, yeah.

The Constellation.

Constellation, okay. Yes.
I'd forgotten the name.

Oh, you've even got the A350.
It's very up to date.

Yes, I did that from one of the books.

And we had to get a license from Airbus.

Oh, you did?

Yeah.

Just to do a little model like that?

To do a model in the thing.

But they were very good about it and they
sent the actual data that's the actual...

Oh, really?

data that they used
when they painted the original prototypes.

So pretty much every single plane
you've made is in this room?

Most of them, yeah.

It's like a library.

Everything is here so
I can look it up again.

Rather than “origami,”
Dewar uses “kirigami”:

he cuts out the parts
that he uses to make a plane.

Flight duration is boosted
by good wing balance

and a carefully positioned center
of gravity.

If it is made well,
and weather conditions allow,

a plane may catch an updraft
and fly gracefully for hundreds of meters.

Where do you get the ideas
for all your designs?

They're in the air.

As we were saying,

a lot of the planes are based
on real aircraft.

Right.

So when I'm looking
through books and things,

I think, that's a nice-looking plane.
I'd like to try and make that.

Or the historical ones,

and it's kind of fun to make them
and then feel like I'm the designer,

you know?

But a lot of the other ones are just...
they get picked out of the air, really.

Something that I see, and I think,
well, that'd be interesting.

You know.

Like the TAKENOKO here, for example.

It's that kind of triangular thing,

so it looks like it might be a nice wing.

And sure enough...

Right.

Yeah. So just stuff that's around.

Did you start off with the folded planes?

I started with the folding planes, yeah.

I did a lot of origami,

and that's all I knew about,

Right.

for a long time.

Do you actually have a method
for doing this that anybody can follow?

Even somebody as clumsy as I am?

This is an evolution, obviously,

but if you start with something
that's fairly simple,

yeah, it shouldn't be a problem.

I think anyone can do it.

Okay.

Our presenter gets down to work.

He's going to make a ladybug plane,
designed by Dewar.

Here's the pattern.

The parts must be cut out, folded,
and assembled.

The first step is to get cutting.

The thin, dotted lines are the valleys.

And the...That's the mountain.

-I see.
-I suggest you use the ruler.

Okay.

That'll give you a...If you hold it up
like this you can see through the paper,

to the line on the other side.

Okay.

It's like toothpaste.
You wring it right out to the very end.

-Maybe a little...
-No, you're doing great.

Maybe a little bit too much glue.

I think you're okay.

OK, and you do all of the trimming
to the plane with the back edge here.

With a little help,

Peter succeeds
in building a ladybug airplane.

Andrew Dewar was born in 1961, in Toronto.

A life-changing moment came
on his tenth birthday.

A book he received as a birthday present
featured pictures of paper airplanes,

and one in particular had a design
that fascinated him.

This was something
that I really wanted to try,

but I couldn't tell just from the picture
how to do that.

Just a strip of paper with wings.

It wasn't strong enough.

It didn't work.

Right.

I didn't know how to get the balance.

So where did you go from there?

Well, I was lucky.

Later, when I was visiting the library,

I found this.

Jet-age Jamboree.

-Oh, the same plane!
-And there's same plane.

Oh, right.

So this was a major discovery,

and the book has plans for making them.

Oh, amazing.

So I was so excited.

Went straight to the librarian and said,

“Please give me some paper and scissors,”

and went right to work and made it
right there in the library.

The first plane.

What kind of paper did you use?

It was just ordinary paper,

and so it was pretty floppy.

But for flying just in the library,

it was perfect.

It went “fooo!” and that was it.

I was caught.

You were hooked.

Yeah.

Here's the book Dewar found.

It was written
by a Japanese author: Ninomiya Yasuaki.

In 1967,

he won the top prize at the First Great
International Paper Airplane Contest.

Later he became chairman
of the Japan Paper Airplane Association,

a position he holds to this day.

His book inspired Dewar to pursue a hobby

that would become a lifelong passion.

At the age of 13,

Dewar was already leading workshops
at a local museum,

and creating his own designs.

Then I thought, well,
he might be interested in mine.

I'd like to trade maybe for some
of his other designs, and sent a letter.

And a little while later, these arrived.

How did you know
how to get in touch with him?

I didn't.
I just sent a letter to the publisher.

Oh.

Yeah.

And they forwarded it,

and he was very pleased
to have somebody write a letter.

And he sent you two books from Japan?

He sent me a couple of books, yeah.

So this was very exciting.

But my big problem now is
how do I read it?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

And...

It had...

Okay. You can understand the patterns?

I can understand the patterns.

So I was able to make the planes,

but I couldn't really read it very well.

How did you become able to read it?

That took a lot more time. But...

I can imagine!

But it just so happened that my aunt had

gone to Japan for the 1970
Osaka Exposition.

-Oh, the expo?
-Yes.

And I had hoped that she would bring back
some kind of a Japanese toy for me.

She brought back a book of
how to write kanji.

And when I first got it, I thought,

what am I going to do with this?

Was it all written in Japanese,

or did it have English translation?

It had English translation.

It was a guide for foreigners to learn
how to write Japanese characters.

So it was perfect,

and so...that's what it's for!

And so I went right to work
and looking up the kanji.

Okay. So you see the kanji
in the title of the book, for example,

Yeah.

you take the first one, meaning paper.

Yeah.

How do you find it in the book?

You've got to look it up somehow.

I just had to flip through the whole book
until I found it.

Dewar's love of paper airplanes endured,
undiminished, into his adult life.

In 1988, he graduated
from a university in Toronto.

What did you actually study in college?

Because I had been going to libraries
practically every day since I was a kid

and had been working
in the library part time for many years,

I thought maybe become a librarian.

And so I then went to library school.

But in order to get
into the library school,

I had to do more studies.

And I took something I was interested in,

Japanese Studies.

Okay.

Yeah.

And when I was doing that,
one of my professors said,

there's a scholarship offered by Japan
for people to study here for a few years.

You should go.

Any doubt I had about actually making
the effort to do something about my plans,

he just pushed... “You're going!”

Okay.

And you never looked back.

And I never looked back.

In the same year as his graduation,
Dewar moved to Japan.

And he was finally able to meet
his childhood hero.

I actually met him shortly
after I arrived in Japan.

I discovered
that it wasn't just these two books.

There were more of them.

Okay.

And I wrote him another letter
and he said,“That ten-year-old?!

And you're here, and writing in Japanese?”

Okay. Because you'd done Japanese studies

you'd actually learned
how to write Japanese by then.

Yeah. So he was quite surprised.

I'm sure.
He must have been very impressed, yeah.

Yeah. And he had sort of a regular flying
meeting at a park in Tokyo,

and he said, everyone's welcome to come,
so please come and join us.

And I went and met him and a whole lot
of other people just like me.

Right.

Are there are a lot of enthusiasts?

There are a lot, yeah.

There were a surprising number
of people out there flying the airplanes.

And when I first saw them,

you know, I'd been doing it by myself
in Canada and with thin paper,

and it didn't fly very well outside.

And here they were in the park just
shooting these things up,

and they were flying for,
like, 30 seconds and,

oh, man, I've gone to heaven.

Japan is the perfect place
for fans of paper airplanes,

with over 100,000 enthusiasts.

A number of them gather
for an annual competition

that dates back around 30 years.

After acquiring a Master's degree,
Dewar stayed in Japan,

and became a university lecturer.

He notes a key feature that sets Japan
apart as a place to make paper planes.

Japan has got a great paper culture.

That's true.

Yeah. And so you can go to any store
and buy all kinds of different papers,

Japanese papers,
Western papers of different kinds.

Really really great paper.

And as far as I could find in Canada,

it was...the construction paper,

which, you know, it looks nice,
but it's not very sturdy.

Or Bristol board,
which it's like a three ply,

and when you fold it, it cracks.

Okay.

Or thin printer paper.

And that was...those were the choices.

Okay.

-So it was a whole different culture.
-It was a whole different culture.

What's the best kind of paper
for making paper planes?

The best paper is something
that's fairly thick and stiff,

like Kent paper, which is used...it's used
for architectural drawings and things.

It's fairly thick and it's quite stiff.

And then you can try other things.

I occasionally use Japanese paper...

-Washi.
-Washi.

This is that kind of paper
you can see it's...

Oh, right.

It's fairly stiff.

Yeah.

-Very translucent.
-Very translucent.

And you can see all the fibers
in there, too.

Yeah. Because it's machine made,

it has...it went over a roller
on one side, but only one side.

Ah ha!

So one side is nice and smooth.

But they're very light,

so when you throw them inside the house,
they just sort of fly like this.

But they look great outside.

The sun comes through them.

Oh, right!

They're really lovely.

There's all sorts of considerations,
aren't there?

Yeah.

Dewar's planes are strikingly different
from those made by Ninomiya.

Ninomiya creates thin designs,
to minimize air resistance.

Dewar, meanwhile,
creates three-dimensional designs

that more closely resemble the real planes
they're based on.

Because of the air resistance,
they're more difficult to fly.

I'm sure there must be an awful
lot of trial and error involved in it.

Did you have any major failures?

That's a good question.

Because they're paper

and because they only take like,
an afternoon to make,

a major failure is not very big.

Okay.

Not like the time, for example,

I went to a concert and someone in the
balcony folded a paper plane and flew it

and it got stuck
in the Prima violinist's bridge.

That would be like a big mistake.

Oh I don't know...

Death rays went from her eyes.

That wasn't me.

So how did your designs diverge,
particularly from Dr. Ninomiya's?

At first they didn't a whole lot
because I...

that was sort of the way to make them.

And he actually says in there
that the profile fuselage...

the number of layers of paper pasted
together is the most efficient,

so, okay, well,
that's easy to make and easy to do,

and I'll take his word for it.

But quite quickly I started thinking,

but real planes don't look like that,

so what would happen if I actually made
them three dimensional like real planes?

Oh, right.

But there was a lot of trial
and error involved in that.

But that was sort of my way
of adding something new to it

and doing something
that was sort of unique to me.

That was also something
that I wanted to try.

So had nobody done this kind
of three-dimensional thing until you did?

I think there were a number of people

who were sort
of doing tubular fuselages and things.

In my case,

when I was looking at
making three dimensional fuselages,

the first things I was making were

things where it was really
three dimensional, like big fuselages,

or things where the size
of the airplane was really

important to the design sort of thing.

Yeah. So they were
ostentatiously three dimensional.

OK.

-That was unique.
-Did you make jumbo jets?

Yeah.

Well, for example,
this right on the shelf up there,

can you see the GB there?

That's quite a famous airplane.

It's in...pictures of it are in virtually
every history of airplane book.

GB.

But it's almost impossible
to make as a profile

because it doesn't look like...

Okay.

Yeah. So in order to make that plane,

I had to basically make it
three dimensional.

Then everyone is thinking,
no way that's going to fly.

And it did.

It does.

Over the years,

Ninomiya inspired Dewar to explore
the limits of paper airplane design.

Now very elderly,
Ninomiya is mostly confined to bed,

but he was nevertheless delighted to speak
with us about Dewar.

Oh. That's wonderful.

Yes, he hasn't changed.

He has a very stubborn streak, and
that is one of the great things about him.

He's very kind to the people around him,
and he won't criticize them.

He knows what he thinks,

but he wants everyone to do things the way
that they want to do them.

He's happy to have them try new things,
and that's how new things are found.

Yes, he often told me

that my airplanes were probably not
as good as his.

In many cases it's true.

I think for him,
flying was the most important thing,

which is different from the way many other
people see his airplanes.

I think he's very well known
for having very beautiful airplanes,

because, you know,

they're very carefully designed,
with nice curved lines,

and everything is nicely balanced,
and they look really nice,

and he placed a lot of importance
on the way they looked as well,

but the first and most important thing is
how well they fly.

So in that sense, you know,
we're different.

In addition to designing paper airplanes,

Dewar is also the principal
of a kindergarten.

He has held that role for over a decade.

And several times a year,

he shows the children
how to make paper planes.

As they're so young,
he focuses on folding paper.

No cutting required.

When the planes are ready,
the children fly them in the playground.

This activity was Dewar's idea.

It's delicate work,
so it improves the children's dexterity.

They have to concentrate,
and follow instructions.

I think they find the principal's lessons
really stimulating.

They build the planes themselves,
and fly them too.

So they get the fun of making them,
and the fun of flying them.

They get both.

If their plane flies well,
they get a sense of achievement.

I think that's a really
enjoyable aspect for them.

You seem to have almost an ideal job

in that you're able to use your paper
plane obsession to pass it onto the kids.

Yeah. Well, I mean,
I can't be doing just that.

No, I know.

But it's not just me passing it on.

I get a lot from the kids, too.

It's really, really important, I think,

for kids to have the experience
of just doing different things like this.

And once they get into public school,
junior high and so on,

they're studying for tests.

There's a correct answer.

-There's an awful lot of rote learning.
-Yeah, really.

There's not a whole lot of jibun...

thinking on your own
and making your own discoveries and so on.

So it's really, really important
to get kids used to doing that at this age

and just challenging them
with lots of different things.

I do lots of workshops for children

and quite often the people
that are coming are in the lower grades.

Smaller children.

But they come with their parents.

And I usually try
and get the parents involved, too.

The mothers quite often sort of sit back
for a little while

and they're looking like this.

And then once they start going into it,
they get really into it.

But the fun thing is to watch
how the kids reacting to their fathers.

I've never seen him like this before.

Because everyone becomes a kid
when they start making the planes.

Right.

And seeing their fathers
and getting obsessed about something

that probably is something
that they're not seeing every day.

So that's really important, too.

They get a lot more out of it
than just a plane.

Sure.

And you've managed to keep yourself
engaged in this for several decades now.

Yep.

You don't get bored?

Absolutely not.

It's just fascinating.
Always new things to try.

Every time the plane flies,
it's like, very exciting.

You feel like you're flying
on the plane yourself.

It's sort of...whoa.

That moment is probably
what's most fun about it.

When the plane really flies just right,
it flies for a long time.

When it finally comes down, you know, man,
I'm up around 180 or something.

Okay, time for the last question,
which is always the same one.

What is Japan to you?

The answer that I'm inclined to give...

What is Japan to me?

Japan was first of all,

it was the place where I could really
get going with paper airplanes.

But also, over my whole life,

it's been a place that gives me
the opportunity to do things I want to do.

So if there's something I think,
“Oh, I'd really like to try that,”

I can do it.

If there's something I want to start here,
I can do it.

And in Japan generally,
people are open to that kind of thing

much more than they were in Canada.

Interesting.

So what is Japan?

To me, it's the place that allowed me
to expand my possibilities

and try new things that I might not have
been able to do if I hadn't come here.

So it's been a very exciting,
vibrant life so far.

Okay.

And I'm sure
there are lots of things to come.

You know, I probably hadn't given much
or maybe any thought

to paper planes since becoming an adult,

but your enthusiasm
for this is just so infectious.

I really enjoyed today.

Thank you very much.

Well, thank you.

It's been really enjoyable.

It's always fun to talk about it.

It's time to see
how well the ladybug planes fly.

OK!

-Some minor adjustments necessary.
-Minor adjustments.

But I think the first is
that you want to just...

-Flatten out the back of the wing.
-Yeah. A little bit less.

Okay. It's looking good.

You can try that again.

Okay.

Now we're getting
into the really obsessive thing.

Hold it a little bit farther forward.

Okay.

Whoa. That's a good one.

Okay.

There you go.