Pandora's Box, A Pinwheel Cube

Once you have mastered the pinwheel, it can be used for modular box, the Tamatebako. It comes with a story that is like the story of Pandora's box, being a box to never be openned. This model can in fact be openned from any side, and easily sealed, but if you open too many sides at once, the model evaporates into a mess.

As the story goes, a fisherman named Urashima-Taro one day ran across some children torturing a sea turtl. Urashima-Taro bought the turtle from the children to stop the abuse, and then released it to the sea. Some time later, the sea turtle returned, and being grateful invited him to come and live with him in the enchanted palace of Oto-Hime, who is the Mistress of the Sea. Urashima-Taro went, and enjoyed the enchanted land for a long, long time. Eventually he began to miss his home land.

So he asked Oto-Hime to send him back home, which she was happy to do. As a parting gift, she gave him the Tamatebako with explicit instructions to never open the box. He went back home, but to his dismay, all that he once knew had changed. He did not recognize the people, the buildings, or anything at all. With time he grew very depressed, and decided to see what was in the box.

When he openned to box, a white puff of smoke escaped, and he was transformed into an old, white haired man. The time that had passed while he was at the palace was great, and Oto-Hime had stored his old age away in the Tamatebako, which Urashim-Taro release.

To build your own Pandora's box, begin with a square piece of paper, and fold it into thirds vertically and horizontally, like you are making a pinwheel. You are infact making a pinwheel, but we need to cut the paper first.

Valley fold the paper in half diagonally, to expose the first cut. This fold will also be useful for the pinwheel folds.

At the center of the fold, cut a straight line up to where the valley folds cross. This should bisect the center triangle. Unfold the paper.

Valley fold diagonally in the other direction.

Once again, cut from the center of the fold to where the other folds cross, bisecting the center triangle. Unfold the model.

You should now have an X cut out of the center square of the paper, which is valley folded into nine squares.

Pinwheel fold the model. If you are not sure how to do this, check out the pinwheel model page.

Valley fold the four spokes of the pinwheel inwards, going in a clockwise direction around the model.

The last flap, or spoke, of the pinwheel should be tucked under the first one, like you are closing a cardboard box.

With all of the flaps in place, unfold the four flaps you created by cutting the paper. They are on the bottom of the model.

I really like how this looks at this point. A square inside a square with overlapping triangles. Beautiful.

Valley fold the left and right flaps, and tuck the into the pockets (there are pockets on each side of the model) on that side. This completes a face of the box.

You will need six faces to complete the model.

Glue is applied to the back of the flaps before they are inserted into the pockets.

Put glue on the tab, and insert the tab on the top of one of the faces into the pocket on the side of another.

Continue doing this until you have one row three faces high, and one column four faces wide.

Assemble the cube, folding the connections at 90 degree angles, and glueing tabs into pockets wherever the fit. There will be 12 connections to make in all.

The completed Tamatebako can be openned from any face, and is quite a treat for presents.