Sunday, April 23, 2023

Juno Puzzles - Junichi & Yukari Yananose



It recently occurred to me that I should blog about the incredible puzzling accomplishments of Juno.  Many years ago Eric Fuller beautifully crafted Juno’s ‘Uranus’ design and from that moment on I was hooked on Juno’s work!


I have added photos of just some of the many beautiful Juno puzzles in my collection and as always drop by Pluredro to see what’s available.


Here’s a couple of links to Juno’s earliest website:


Juno's World (English page)


Juno's World (Japanese page)


Here’s a bio from Brian & Sue Young of Mr Puzzle:


“Junichi is credited with designing some of the most interesting and complex, and therefore the most difficult, puzzles to solve ever created.  In 2007 he received an honourable mention at the International Design Competition awards  for his Tornado Burr.

With that burr and others he’s also given Brian some of his biggest headaches by designing some of the most difficult puzzles Brian’s ever had to make!

[Update 2020] Since then Juno as we know him has worked here at Mr Puzzle from 2011-2017 and he has now setup his own workshop and website and is creating some of his best puzzles ever.  His sequential discovery puzzle Slammed Car won the Jury Grand Prize at the 2019 IPP Puzzle Design Competition.”


Steve of Boxes and Booze has an excellent blog covering most of Juno’s Sequential Discovery Puzzle Boxes:


This is a great interview about Juno’s geometrical puzzles:


“I got familiar with geometry and wood working to satisfy my intellectual curiosity and, started designing original puzzles when I was a teenager. It became a part of my life-time activity.


I always wanted to make my puzzle something new or different. Since a dodecahedron or an icosahedron shaped puzzles are designed by our predecessors, I needed to challenge a compound of those two polyhedra.


Sophisticated CAD software, efficient wood machineries and a little patience made the task possible.”













































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