Month: February 2016

Scaled Works of Satoshi Kamiya 2 04-05

Origami, Scaled Works of Satoshi Kamiya

The next couple of models from Kamiya’s second book are a Raccoon Dog and a Lion.

The Raccoon Dog is listed in Japanese as Tanuki, which is also a word in English. I wonder if they didn’t use it because Super Mario Bros. 3 helped popularize the word in English but spelled it “tanooki”. Or maybe they just didn’t think it was popular enough for people to recognize. But how many people recognize “Cyclommatus metallifer”, anyway?

WOSK_204 - RACCOON DOG (1)

WOSK_204 - RACCOON DOG (2)

WOSK_204 - RACCOON DOG (3)

WOSK_204 - RACCOON DOG (4)

Moving on, Kamiya’s tanuki has a great raccoon-esque colour change and adorable little ears. It does not turn into a Jizou statue (that I am aware of).

WOSK_205 - LION (2)

WOSK_205 - LION (3)

WOSK_205 - LION (4)

WOSK_205 - LION (7)

The Lion is one of the more grandiose models in the book, not that there are a lack of them. The regal countenance and fancy mane make it much more memorable than other origami lions. You may have noticed that, with the details, I had to go back to the thinner paper. The head gave me a bit of trouble, but the mane and face are pretty slick.

WOSK_204 - RACCOON DOG (5) WOSK_205 - LION (8)

Puchi Priest

Origami, Original Designs

The second Puchi leaf dude I made was the Puchi Priest. The priest is the cleric/healer of the group (both with this monster and with character classes in Dragon Quest games). This is why he has a cross (and possibly a pope-ish hat).

WKO_004 - PUCHI PRIEST(102) WKO_004 - PUCHI PRIEST(103)

The green variations are プチプリースト(Puchi Priest), FooPriest, or Conkuisitor, while the blue editions are コロプリースト(Koro Priest), PodPriest, or Epipany (names from the Japanese, English SNES, and English DS editions of the games).

WKO_004 - PUCHI PRIEST(105) WKO_004 - PUCHI PRIEST(108)

I mentioned I was going to go over the names a bit, but I’m actually not so sure about the English names. I have no idea about Foo, Conk, or Pip, which recur in the English names. I think Pod refers to “pod people”, which are plants that replace humans in Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Not sure tho.

Anyway, the Japanese names are プチ (Puchi) and コロ (Koro). Puchi is just a word for small/petit. Koro is more interesting; it’s from コロポックル (koropokkuru), which are little spirit people who live under plants in Ainu legend. I like little spirit people over alien abductors by far.

WKO_004 - PUCHI PRIEST(110)