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 The
Himitsu Baku is a Japanese wooden puzzle box,
handcrafted from wood by one of many master craftsmen.
The men who create these boxes in Japan are renowned for
their craftsmanship, because these are simply no
ordinary boxes. The Himitsu Baku Japanese puzzle box is
said to have been first developed in or around 1893,
which was the tail end of the Edo period in Japan.
The
purpose of the Himitsu Baku Japanese puzzle box is to
challenge those who wish to open it. The Himitsu Baku
box consists of a number of small panels, decorated in
intricate Japanese patterns that make it a perfect
mantle piece decoration. These panels need to be moved
slightly in different steps, and each of the steps
loosens devices within the box that will allow it to be
opened after a certain sequence has been completed. The
most popular and more easily found Himitsu Baku Japanese
puzzle boxes are found in four-step, seven-step,
ten-step and twelve-step variations, though there are a
number of other variations as well. There have been
Japanese puzzle boxes created by master craftsmen that
require as many as 125 or 150 'moves' to open them, but
these boxes are extremely difficult to find, and many of
the craftsmen responsible for their creation have passed
on.
Anyone
who is interested in puzzles, enjoying Rubik's cube
puzzles, ISIS puzzles and other popular hand puzzles,
will enjoy these traditional Japanese box puzzles. These
puzzles are each individually hand crafted from wood by
master artisans in Japan, hand carved and decorated, and
comprised of special mechanisms that require certain
movements be made in order to open these boxes. The
smallest amount of 'moves' required to open a Himitsu
Baku Japanese puzzle box is 4, but these puzzle boxes
have been constructed to require as many as 50 secret
moves before the compartment within the box can be
revealed.
While
Himitsu Baku Japanese puzzle boxes with smaller required
move numbers are still readily available from a number
of sources, it is difficult if not completely impossible
to find the Himitsu Baku puzzle boxes requiring more
than around 60 moves or so. This is because the men who
crafted these boxes in the past have passed away, and if
any of these boxes are still being created, certainly
none of them are being sold anywhere. Still, Himitsu
Baku Japanese puzzle boxes requiring as many as
fifty-five to sixty secret moves can still be found in
numerous sources, although it is not known how long they
will be available before they too have become sold out.
Himitsu
Baku Japanese puzzle boxes are extremely well made,
crafted by hand in wood with gorgeous hand-carved
patterns in them that make them a wonderful piece of décor
in addition to a truly enjoyable puzzle. While these
puzzle boxes do traditionally come with instructions for
opening, half of the fun is figuring out the secret for
yourself.
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