Whale Type 1 by Osamu Kasho - Karakuri

I don’t usually blog about puzzleboxes and even less about Japanese puzzleboxes, but this particular one is such a cool piece.

One of our big events in our ‘neck of the woods’ is Whale watching in the Bay of Fundy (home of the largest tides in the world) so you could say this puzzles has a connection for me.

This little puzzle box is very cool with a clever mechanism.  It is very nicely crafted from Walnut and Mikuzi (Dogwood).  The fit, finish and design of this puzzle is quite astounding and I can definitely see why many collect ‘Karakuri’ puzzles!

Here’s a Description from Osamu:

"Same mechanism as Christmas present for 2017, Baby whale. I remade bigger a little than before and added a box for storage. A Karakuri box of friendly faced whale. It’s not difficult to open. You can peek inside its mechanism. It’s simple mechanism, but please enjoy to see how all parts are linked after you solve this.”

“Karakuri Box”, is a box, with a mechanism made from the individual ideas of craftsmen based on the traditional craft of the Hakone and Odawara region, known as the “secret box”.