Puzzle Boxes #2: Traditional Japanese Boxes
Traditional Japanese puzzle boxes were invented in 1893. They are primarily made in the Hakone region of Japan, which boasts a wide variety of different woods. Every traditional style Japanese puzzle box I’ve seen has fantastic craftsmanship. There are usually covered with Yosegi-Zaiku, which is a thin veneer sliced from glued pattern of different woods. A few boxes are” muku”, in which the glued pattern spans the entire thickness of the panels. Muku is more expensive, but the patterns are less elaborate that Yosegi. Size is usually designated in “Sun,” a traditional Japanese unit of measurement equal to about 30.3 mm or 1.22 inches. 5 sun is considered to be the standard size.
The traditional puzzles boxes I’ve seen follow a characteristic opening pattern which is limited by their construction.
Triangle puzzle box
This is a 5-move box. This is the one I give to people to try out when explaining traditional Japanese puzzle boxes.
5 sun 18 step puzzle box
This box has 2 compartments (top and bottom) to open.
6 sun 54+1 step
This is made by Yamanaka Kumiki Works in Japan. There are 4 sliding panels. 2 of the sliding panels have 4 sliding keys each. I thought that each time I had to move a panel with keys, I would have to go through many of the 16 possible combinations to get the panel to move. This was not the case, as there is a simple basic pattern for most of the moves. The pattern varies for the last 18 moves, but remains the same within those 18 moves. The “+1″ refers to a hidden panel in the lid. This is usually quite an expensive box, but I was able to get it for a considerable discount on eBay because of a minor cosmetic blemish.
