If you have ever seen a Japanese Hina doll display, you will remember the pair sitting side by side: the emperor and empress in their layered robes, tiny and very still. This model is the female half of that pair, the Mebina, reduced to ten folds of a single square.

It is about as gentle as origami gets. No sinks, no pleats, no collapsing the paper into something unrecognizable - just a center crease, a run of narrow valley folds that shape the robe, and two mountain folds that set the figure on its feet. Use paper that is colored on one side only and the white peeks through exactly where a face and hands should be. Make one, then make the matching male doll, and you have a Hinamatsuri display that takes about ten minutes.

What you need

1 sheet of standard origami paper (15 cm x 15 cm)

How to fold the female Hina doll (Mebina)

STEP 1.

Place the paper with the uncolored side facing up and valley-fold it in half to make a crease down the middle.

STEP 2.

Make the valley fold, then unfold the paper.

STEP 3.

After unfolding, valley-fold along the dotted line, bringing the edge in to meet the center crease.

STEP 4.

Valley-fold along the dotted line.

STEP 5.

Valley-fold along the dotted line.

STEP 6.

Valley-fold along the dotted line.

STEP 7.

Valley-fold along the dotted line.

STEP 8.

Mountain-fold along the dotted line about 1 cm from the bottom.

STEP 9.

Mountain-fold along the dotted line about 2 cm from the top.

STEP 10.

This completes the female Hina doll!

Once you have the female figure down, fold the male Hina doll as well and display the two together as a pair.