We’re back with the next installment of the best origami of 2018 this time featuring mythological creatures, beings, etc. All of these images were uploaded to the Internet during 2018 which was pretty much the major criteria for their selection.

I picked my favourite creations and you can vote for which one you think is the best at the end of this post. Voting will be open for two weeks until Monday March 11, 2019.

Let’s get started!

1) Yebisu, Designed and Folded by Kei Watanabe

Yebisu is one of the Seven Lucky Gods from Japanese mythology and this super expressive model is folded from a single sheet of paper! I love the facial expression as well as that fishing rod.

Instructions not available

2) Yatagarasu, Designed by Satoshi Kamiya and Folded by Ji Woo Han

Yatagarasu is a 3-legged crow also from Japanese mythology. This design by Satoshi Kamiya is pretty popular but this is easily the cleanest and best looking fold of this model I’ve ever seen. The three feet and claws look fantastic and I love the pose here as well.

Diagrams available in Tanteidan Magazine #157

3) Unicorn, Designed and Folded by Daniel Chang

Here we have a fantastic unicorn by Daniel Chang. It’s all folded from a single square of paper, the overall shapes of this model as well as the post are excellent.

Instructions not available

4) Scaled Winged Kirin, Designed by Satoshi Kamiya, Folded and Modified by Nguyen Nam Son

This model is absolutely incredible. It’s folded from a single 80cm x 80cm square of paper and must have taken forever to fold all the individual scales which aren’t part of the original design. The head is probably my favourite part about this model but the wings, tail, legs, body and whole thing looks incredible.

Instructions not available

5) Kyubi (Nine-Tailed Fox), Designed and Folded by Quentin Trollip

Quentin Trollip used his fantastic animal designing skills to design this great little nine-tailed fox, another creature from Japanese mythology. It’s folded from a single square of paper and I really love the colour changes in the design, especially on the head.

Instructions not available

6) Ghost, Designed by Oriol Esteve and Folded by Terry Nicolas

With this model Terry Nicolas took Oriol Esteve’s kind of cute looking ghost and tried to make it look a bit more scary. He added a nose since cute ghosts don’t have noses, this led to freeing some hidden flaps of paper which became a vampire cape. Then he added claws, reversed the 3D belly which put it into a more frightening pose and finished it up by giving it a more snake-like tail.

Diagrams for the original design can be found in Stop Thinking – Start Folding!

7) God of Thunder, Designed by Hojyo Takashi and Folded by Vít Masopust

I’ve always loved this model of the thunder god Raijin from Japanese mythology and it’s folded absolutely beautifully here. It’s all from one 60cm x 60cm square of paper and I have no idea how you can make a ring around the head like that.

Video instructions available from Mariano Zavala B.’s YouTube channel

8) Cerberus, Designed by Satoshi Kamiya and Folded by Maxi Purewal

This is a fantastic, beautiful and clean fold of Satoshi Kamiya’s excellent design of Cerberus, the 3-headed dog creature from Greek mythology that guards the gates to Hades.

Diagrams available in Works of Satoshi Kamiya 2, 2002 – 2009

9) Yatagarasu, Designed and Folded by Kei Watanabe

Kei Watanabe also designed an amazing and super complicated Yatagarasu model. Everything about this is super impressive.

Instructions not available

10) Hell Hound, Designed and Folded by Choi Ju Young

I really like this Hell Hound design, especially the head. The paper used here is great and I also quite like how it almost looks like there are flames on the back.

Instructions not available

11) Winged Kirin, Designed by Satoshi Kamiya and Folded by Kim Ju Hyun

Here’s Satoshi Kamiya’s original Winged Kirin design. It’s folded absolutely beautifully and looks super majestic the way it’s posed here.

Instructions not available

12) Kirins, Designed by Li Changqi and Satoshi Kamiya and both Folded by Icarus Zhao

There are two more incredible kirin designs, this time without wings but with scales. The yellow one is a redesign of Satoshi Kamiya’s crazy Ryujin and the red one is designed by Li Chanqi. Absolutely beautiful work here, they both look incredible.

Instructions not available

13) The Divine Boar Inoshishigami, Designed by Satoshi Kamiya and Folded by Reaper

There are a lot of Japanese mythology themed models in this post. This is the Divine Boar Inoshishigami and this is probably the best fold I’ve ever seen of this model. The head looks really awesome, especially the eye.

Diagrams available in Works of Satoshi Kamiya 1995-2003

14) Pegasus b3.0, Designed by Satoshi Kamiya and Folded by Jan Groot

Here’s an absolutely beautiful origami Pegasus. I love how it looks like it’s about to start running.

Crease pattern available from folders.jp

15) Little Devil/Devil Fork, Designed and Folded by Hiroaki Kobayashi

Hiroaki Kobayashi designed this fantastic group of little paper devils. Each one of them is made from a single square of paper and the fork itself though is a separate square of paper. He also made excellent video tutorials so you can fold these yourself.

Video instructions for the Little Devil are available from Hiroaki Kobayashi’s YouTube channel

Video instructions for the Devil Fork are available from Hiroaki Kobayashi’s YouTube channel

16) Basilisk, Designed by Bodo Haag and Folded by Boice Wong

This is an absolutely beautiful basilisk. The design is fantastic, it’s expertly folded and the paper used here looks absolutely beautiful, almost like it’s carved from some kind of turquoise stone.

Crease pattern available from Bodo Haag’s Flickr

17) Devil, Designed and Folded by Ju Hyeong Kim

This model looks pretty amazing and it’s full of details from individually folded abs to a very detailed face. This is an absolutely amazing design!

Instructions not available

Which one of these do you think is the best mythological origami creation of 2018? Vote below!

Voting will be open until Monday March 11, 2019. Feel free to vote for your own model and to encourage other people to vote for it as well!

Voting is now closed.