Last week our 12 y.o. son first met a Japanese puzzle box. He loves manipulative puzzles and very quickly decided that he had to have one for himself. He very rarely spends money on anything, so we took notice. It turns out that these are only made in one locality in Japan. Believe it or not, the place down near Mt Fuji where I went last week (only days before I knew he wanted one).
This is an amazing piece of work. The design on the side isn't painted on, it is all separate slivers of wood. The technique is called marquetry, read more here and about the unique Japanese style called yosegi here.
They aren't cheap, nor are they sold in many places. They are made by hand and there is only one type of wood that can be used for the interior to make it move smoothly. We found some online and our son is very pleased with his new acquisition. Here is the video of him opening the box (he's memorised the 14 moves). Sorry that the sound isn't very good.
2 comments:
Love the Japanese puzzle box. We'll have to keep an eye out for one. My die-hard-shorts wearer is still in shorts, but burrrrr it's chilly.
Uber-cool.
Post a Comment