For many companies in Japan, this is the first weekend of the new year, and a three-day holiday starts today. It is now 10 a.m., and I am planning to go to my workshop later today, in the afternoon. The weather is nice again today, but it was very cold this morning. From tomorrow, a strong cold wave is expected to arrive, and the weather may start to change. In the northern parts of Japan, some areas are already experiencing very heavy snowfall, so I want to be careful as well. Even so, we have had many days of dry and clear weather recently, so if the weather turns bad, I find myself thinking that it might be a good chance to slice the ichimatsu yosegi sheets that I finished yesterday 😅 Yosegi likes humidity, so I try to do this kind of work on days when the humidity is higher.
As I wrote a little in my Instagram post yesterday, the 4-sun puzzle boxes are now close to completion, and I am starting to move on to the next project. I have decided that the next work will be a nested 5-sun puzzle box. This is something I have been thinking about since last year: I would like to add one more type of traditional yosegi 5-sun puzzle box. Specifically, I am planning to make the outer box a 5-sun 14-steps puzzle box. I recently made the 5-sun 14-steps of ichimatsu yosegi side panels, but for a fully traditional yosegi 5-sun box, I originally did not plan to make another 14-steps version. This type of traditional yosegi is rare, and I did not want to use it for a box with only a small number of steps. However, by making it part of a nested set, I feel it can be offered as a more high-grade piece. For the inner box, I am currently thinking of making one with around 7 steps. For this inner box, I plan to apply traditional yosegi only to the top panel. It will not be a fixed sun size. Instead, I will make it to fit perfectly inside the outer 5-sun box. With this number of steps and this structure, I would like to keep the selling price around 240 to 260 US dollars. This will be the highest-priced 5-sun puzzle box I have made so far. The photo shows the inside of a 5-sun 14-steps puzzle box.
The details are not fully decided yet, but for now I am moving ahead with the production. This time, I am planning to make 28 sets. Until now, I have only made nested puzzle boxes using a combination of a 2.5-sun box and a Mame puzzle box (1-sun). I have a long history of making nested boxes, and I have continued making them since around 2003, when I became independent. Originally, I made these nested boxes as wholesale items for dealers in Hakone, but that sales route eventually ended, so now I sell them directly myself. Making two boxes as one set takes a lot of time and effort, so most other craftspeople do not attempt this. A long time ago, there were even sets with three nested boxes or more, made by craftsmen who have since passed away. I hope this new nested box will become one of the unique pieces in my lineup 😊
