Hideaki Kawashima

Hideaki Kawashima, a senior member of the Karakuri Creation Group of Japanese puzzle box artisans, is celebrated for his innovative and tricky designs. He prefers the elegance of pure geometric forms, and plays with expectations based on inlay patterns and hidden movements, which are often in a surprising direction, as seen in his innovative XY box. He will often hide one additional compartment in his creations, which will be known when his signature “hanko” is finally discovered.

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Spring Camera

Hideaki Kawashima, a member of the Karakuri Creation Group of puzzle box artists located in Hakone, Japan, loves cameras. He is an accomplished amateur photographer, and has a fondness for vintage film cameras. He has even let his passion influence a few of his puzzle box designs.

Rose

Red roses have had the symbolic meaning of love for centuries, with the origins traced back to Greek mythology. Aphrodite is usually cited as the source, perhaps from her tears, and the red color from her blood or from the blood of her lover Adonis.

Secret Book Box

This year I present the stunning “Secret Book Box” from the Karakuri Creation Group artist Hideaki Kawashima.

Pyramid

Here at Boxes and Booze we seldom get boxed in, and certainly not into a corner. Take a standard cube, for example, with its six faces, eight vertices and twelve edges.

POD

“POD”, by Karakuri Creation Group artist Hideaki Kawashima, is a little box with a large secret. In fact, Kawashima says that this box represents the culmination of all he has learned about puzzle box making over the last 8 years, and that’s saying something.

Planet with a Ring

It’s time to do a little summer stargazing now. Launching off from last week’s post where we boarded Kasho’s rocket ship and blasted into space with the X-15 “rocktail”, we now find ourselves floating amidst the stars and planets of the cosmos.

Three Cornered Deadlock

I like continuing themes, so it’s fitting that this year I have another perfectly balanced, “three-part” puzzle box to pair with the Negroni, and it’s also by Hideaki Kawashima again. Kawashima makes intricately designed puzzles which often have components that interplay with one another, so that one section becomes blocked while the other is opened.

Duet Box

The “duet” box is a lovely puzzle composed of two interdependent cubes which are fused together, and which require one another for each to open and reveal their individual secret compartments.

Triskele

A triskele is an ancient Celtic symbol with three interlocking spirals. The box has lovely raised panels on each face, which alternate directions in a spiral fashion, and overlap the corresponding edges of each side thereby locking the panels in place.

For more information on Hideaki Kawashima puzzles and purchasing visit:

Karakuri Creation Group