Today has the kind of warm weather that feels very much like this season. I heard on the news yesterday that when warm days like this continue, people start predicting when the cherry blossoms will begin to bloom. Japanese people love cherry blossoms, but many tourist areas also plan their business around the season. In many cases it is not only about viewing the flowers, but also about enjoying the event itself. In Tokyo, some popular cherry blossom viewing spots even require reservations or lottery entry, and it can be difficult just to get a place there. Many people go there mainly to have outdoor gatherings, enjoying food and drinks with family or friends, and sometimes with coworkers as a group from the workplace. In a way, you could say this is one of the traditional ways people in Japan spend time and connect with each other 🌸
Today I did not plan to do much work, so I would like to write a little about the hexagonal puzzle box that I will make in the near future. I first started making this box more than twenty years ago. In fact, this box already existed before I began making it. It had been produced by a workshop called “Takahashi Kogei”. Even though it was called a workshop, I believe that, like me, it was run by a single craftsman. By the time I started working on this box, the workshop had already closed. At that time, a wholesaler in Hakone whom I knew well asked me if I could make this box. However, the workshop had been closed for quite a while, and there were no remaining pieces in stock. So there was no box that I could use as a reference. Because of that, we visited a local museum. There was only one hexagonal puzzle box preserved there. It was quite old, and the mechanism could no longer be moved. Since it was part of the museum collection, I could not take it with me, so I wrote down notes about its size and the general structure before leaving. Until then I had heard about hexagonal puzzle boxes, but I had no idea what they actually looked like. At the museum I finally understood that the side panels of the box were the parts that moved. The wholesaler who had asked me to make it also had no knowledge about how the mechanism worked.
Then I made drawings to decide the dimensions of the box and to confirm how the mechanism would move. Today I make this box with 6 steps, but I do not know whether the original box in the museum also had six steps. However, since it had six side panels and no sliding keys (kannuki), I imagine the number of steps was probably similar. The size of the box was also based on the rough measurements I wrote down at the time, but I adjusted them to a size that I felt worked better. In the upper photo, you can see that the side panels are held between the top and bottom panels. However, the original box had the side panels attached to the outside of the top and bottom panels, the same as the hexagonal boxes I make now. After making the boxes with the structure shown in the photo for about ten years, I changed the design to the current form in order to improve production efficiency. To be honest, this box has never been a big seller compared to my other boxes, so I remember making it only about once every two years. At that time, the production price was also quite low—so low that it barely covered the cost. A hexagonal box is much more difficult to make than a square one, and it requires more work. I remember spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to make it more efficiently. To be honest, it was the type of order I least wanted to take 😅.
Even so, I was still younger at the time (compared to now…), and as variations of this design I also made pentagonal and triangular boxes. In fact, I still receive requests for the pentagonal box, but I decline them because they are very difficult to make. They are even harder than the hexagonal ones. My triangular box is not the 7-step type with a sliding key that I currently make for the Hakone market. Instead, it has a 4-step mechanism with a structure similar to the hexagonal box. However, the corners of my triangular box are very sharp, so it may not be the most practical design for a product. This year I have also received requests for the hexagonal box again, so I plan to make some within the next few months. I hope to add a few to my own stock as well. Of course, the price is no longer what it used to be, and now it is set at a level that at least makes the work worthwhile 🤣.
