Karakuri Creation Group
Founded in 2000 by Akio Kamei, the Karakuri Creation Group has maintained the global standard for high quality, innovative and beautiful puzzle boxes from their home in the shadow of Mount Fuji.
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Founded in 2000 by Akio Kamei, the Karakuri Creation Group has maintained the global standard for high quality, innovative and beautiful puzzle boxes from their home in the shadow of Mount Fuji.
There is a controversial Indian folk tale from 1899 that has been beloved by generations of children around the world.
Otters are “semi-aquatic” mammals who live on coastlines, riverbank, lakes and oceans, eating fish and being generally playful and cute. They are also somewhat notorious for the lovely scent they deposit along their territorial habitats.
The traditional dish of fermented soybeans, known as natto, has been a staple of Japanese diet for millennia.
The Hollywood writer’s strike is over! We can now proceed with our regularly scheduled programming and bring you the next episode of idiot Boxes and Boob tubes ….
The record heat wave we are experiencing in Texas has a lot of folks reaching for an ice cold refreshment. I reached for an entire refrigerator and freezer unit.
The Ninja, and related Shinobi warriors, were prominent in 15th century Japan during the Sengoku period.
Milkfat (also known as butter fat) is present in milk as microscopic globules kept separate by their phospholipid and protein membranes.
The Karakuri Creation Research Group of puzzle box artisans are beloved for their fanciful secret opening boxes, which are often quite magical.
Three Hundred Sixty Five Million years ago, give or take, during a brief sixty million year stint known as the Devonian period (between the Silurian and Carboniferous periods) of the Paleozoic era, the first amphibious tetrapods made their appearance on Earth.
One of the most famous stories from the Trojan War mythology is the crafty ruse devised by Odysseus, after ten exhausting years and the death of Achilles, to win the war, by hiding their soldiers inside a massive wooden horse.
The famous monolithic statues of Easter Island (Rapa Nui) are instantly recognizable for their strikingly simple features that evoke mystery and mysticism.
“It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues” - Abraham Lincoln
Nothing gets the heart pounding, the people running, and the imagination spiraling quite like the sight of a dorsal fin gliding its way along the waves.
Spaceflight historians acknowledge the three “fathers” of rocketry who helped launch human beings into space.
Japanese Karakuri Creation Group artist Yoh Kakuda weaves magical tales in wood. Each wonderful creation tells a story, but some are simply more magical.
I’m celebrating the season this year with a perfect puzzle box from Japanese Karakuri Group artist Yasuaki Kikuchi.
I have a fascination with lighthouses, and I’m not alone. There is something evocative about them, the lonely sentinel keeping watch, keeping an eye on the sea and offering a guiding light to the lost or weary traveler. The lighthouse guards us well, but, who guards the lighthouse?
Throughout the history of humankind we have been tied to the past, lavishly celebrating life with the ceremony of death and memory.
The image of an arrow through an apple, or any other manner of small object, is ubiquitous now and can be found everywhere – like here, in this wonderful puzzle box by Japanese master craftsman Akio Kamei.
Master craftsman Akio Kamei, the founder of the Karakuri Creation Group of Japanese artisans, is famous for his ability to create pieces that tell a story. His work is prized for its novelty, beauty and ingenuity. It’s no wonder that he has been a source of inspiration and admiration for American artist Kagen Sound, whose own work is highly prized for similar reasons.
So how does one create something actually surprising in a puzzling object? A set of drawers, for example. What is surprising about that? A plain set of three drawers, like this one, beautifully crafted and ordinary. No one would think twice about them, except for the fact that they come from the Karakuri Creation Group of puzzle box artisans.
Japanese Karakuri Creation Group artist Yasuaki Kikuchi has been thinking about life in the pandemic for a while, and wanted his new creation to express his observations, his frustration, his belief in science, and his ultimate hope.
Popular opinions about the possibility of alien life suggests that our mysterious Universe-mates are either omniscient and wise, intent on contacting us to provide enlightenment, or just the opposite, hostile and violent, hell bent on killing us and taking our planet for their own.
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.
It is not the premise that reality
Is solid. It may be a shade that traverses
A dust, a force that traverses a shade.
- Wallace Stevens
"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.
"I don't much care where –" said Alice.
"Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat.
Spooky season is upon us again! I love a well themed offering for both the Boxes and the Booze so I’m getting in the scary spirit and breaking out the scary spirits.