Kamishibai and origami draw families to York Festival of Ideas

Posted on Wednesday 17 June 2026

On 7 June 2026, the Kamishibai Team from the Department of Language and Linguistic Science joined the charity York Cares to run a family session at the York Festival of Ideas. Twenty children aged five to eleven, with accompanying adults, spent the session exploring languages, storytelling and craft around a single theme of sharing.

Kamishibai, pronounced ka-mee-shee-bye, is a centuries-old Japanese storytelling tradition that combines colourful visuals with live performance. Géraldine Enjelvin, Yumi Nixon and Ulrike Wray used it to share The Rainbow Fish, a story about sharing and making friends.

Along the way, the children learnt to say green, white and red in French, German, Japanese and Spanish, and then in British Sign Language and Makaton. They also practised a few numbers in Japanese, helped by the fact that one, two and three sound like "itchy", "knee" and "sun".

Ulrike Wray then led a step-by-step origami demonstration, and the children folded their own paper boats. The session moved into an indoor treasure hunt that rewarded teamwork, with riddles hidden in boxes and bags. The first read:

A treasure hunt's a lot of fun You have to think, but do not run! Where is the clue Just coloured blue And on the envelope a sun?

Working together, the group realised they were looking for a blue envelope marked with a sun, which held the next clue. Fittingly, the final treasure was a box of colourful origami butterflies and boats that the team had made for participants to take home.

Read more on the York Festival of Ideas website:
https://yorkfestivalofideas.com/2026/calendar/treasure-hunting-origami/