Making of Japanese Puzzle Boxes

How Traditional Japanese Hakone-Yosegi-Zaiku is Crafted

1.  Different colored pieces of woods natural to the Hakone, Japan region are hand picked for quality and are planed to the proper thickness.

 

2.  Each of the planed sheets are then coated with a high temperature glue, layered in the desired pattern and and squeezed in a vise.

    

3.  The layered sheet is then removed from the vise and set into a marquetry mold where it is sawn, thus producing one piece of the pattern.

4.  Each piece is then planed in the mold for exactness.

5.  Several of the completed pieces are then glued together to form the desired pattern and wrapped until the glue has set.

   

6.  After unwrapping each piece, several of the unit pieces are sawn and glued together and the process is repeated until a plate has been formed called a Tanegi.

                                       

7.  The Tanegi is then shaved with a large plane into very thin sheets called Duku.

   

8.  The curled shaved sheets are then shrunken and ironed into a straight sheet in preparation for glue.

9.  The sheets are then used as a veneer and affixed to the product.