Has spring already fully arrived in Japan? 🌸 It was warm again today. Today is the last day of February. Because it is a short month, it always feels like it passes very quickly. Starting tomorrow, it will be March, which is a busy time in Japan. In many places, the new school and business year begins on April 1, so the year often changes at the end of March. This applies to both work and schools. From the end of March to the first week of April, students are usually on spring vacation. The new school year often starts around April 8. For people starting a new job, April 1 is usually their first working day. Maybe because of this, many places have been getting more crowded recently. Perhaps many people are busy preparing for their new start.
I worked on several things in the workshop again today. The assembly of the 4-sun 14-steps puzzle boxes was completed, and today I did the finishing work and the undercoating. This time, for various reasons, I made only 20 boxes. Among them, I included four “random grain” boxes for the first time in a while. For this batch, I also used a two-color type for the bottom panel, so it may feel a little more special. I posted them on Instagram (@okapuzzlebox) today, and I really felt that the combination of walnut and wenge looks quite cool. It has a slightly dark and deep feeling. The top panel uses three colors, with the same color arrangement as a design I made before that was very popular.
Besides that, I prepared the side panels for the 3-sun puzzle boxes. These are the ichimatsu yosegi panels that I glued yesterday. After letting them dry a little, I glue them together with the structural boards of the box and fix them tightly with a vise. Stacking them in a crisscross shape and letting them dry is one way, but applying pressure with a vise is also very effective. The boards become straight and stable. However, I cannot use them tomorrow right away. They need to stay pressed for a while (photo). During that time, the vise cannot be used, but I have another one. And since the other project I am working on at the same time is the Mame puzzle boxes, I do not need the vise for those. They are very small, so a vise would crush them 😅
I have two of these vises in my workshop. They are very special and rare. This type of small vise is probably unique to our region. They were made specifically for workshops producing yosegi zaiku. Now, there is no company making them anymore. In the past, there were several specialized metal workshops in this area that produced tools like this. Of course, they also did other kinds of metal work, but there was one craftsman who knew Hakone craftsmanship very well and mainly produced these tools. When I started my workshop, I visited one of the most well-known craftsmen and asked him if he could make this special vise again. At that time, he was already elderly and had almost stopped working. At first, he said he had not made one in a long time and that it would be difficult. Also, it was hard to gather the parts for just one unit. However, since his factory had made many of these vises in the past, by chance there were still enough materials left to make one more. About a week later, he welded the parts together and made this vise for me. Because it had been a long time since he last made one, he put extra spirit into it. Before, they were usually painted a simple green, but this time he painted it pink, though in a calm tone 🤣 Still, it looks quite nice. Perhaps this one became the last vise ever made especially for Hakone yosegi craftsmanship. It is made entirely of iron, while some vises include wooden parts. Its precision and stability are excellent. I believe it will continue to be very useful for many years to come.
