10-Jun-2025
Today, it rained all day. The high humidity is a bit of a concern, but since I’m a little pressed for time of this box, I worked on the finishing process of the 27-steps puzzle box I’m currently making.
This time, I’m creating a box that features “Mokuzogan (wood inlay art)” on the top panel. Because I’m designing the box to match the size of this inlay, the shape is a little different from usual. It’s about the same size as a 4-sun box, but it’s much wider.
This project is a request from Hakone Market, and I’m making only as many boxes as I have wood inlays for—using up all of the inlay sheet pieces. However, I ended up with two extra completed structural parts, so I decided to use those for myself and made two boxes using traditional yosegi and ichimatsu yosegi patterns. For the top and bottom panels, I used parts from a 5-sun box. I’m thinking of selling them as limited pieces.
But I ran into one problem—I don’t have outer boxes that fit these two puzzle boxes. There isn’t a good size available. And since there are only two, I can’t really ask the usual craftsman who makes my paper boxes.
So, I looked online for a box that’s about the right size. Of course, I couldn’t find anything that fits perfectly. In the end, I decided to buy slightly larger boxes that will still hold the puzzle boxes properly. I plan to have everything finished by the end of this week.
One thing I’ve decided to do this week is to start making own yosegi sheets again. I can’t even remember the last time I made them… It’s been a while, but I feel like giving it another try.
There are two reasons for this: one is that the supply of yosegi sheets from the maker is getting lower, and the other is that I want to make my own work feel more personal and unique. Of course, my yosegi sheets are much simpler than those made by traditional craftsmen, but I still plan to make the same sizes I used before—for 4-sun and square boxes.
This rainy season, with its high humidity, is actually good for making yosegi sheets, so that’s another reason I decided to do it now.
